Just found this club today. Was reading all of
the messages. I am 43 years old. Was diagnosed with
stage 1A in May 96. Had a port installed and started
chemo the day after Independence day...LOL I had to
have the adriamycin slowly my first two sessions. Wore
what they call a 'walk-med' for two whole
weekends.....couldn't sleep, couldn't shower properly, and was worried
constantly about pulling it out and burning my skin.
Finally, I improved enough to have them 'push' it the way
they normally do. Lost about half my hair, but enough
stayed in that I didn't have to wear a wig. Had to work
during the chemo, but took medical leave for the
radiation treatments. Radiation went okay for the first
week or so.....they made marks on my neck and chest to
map me, and of course, all my shirts were V-necked.
LOL Totally lost my voice and could barely choke down
Thanksgiving dinner. My skin didn't burn, though. Lost what
remained of the hair along the lower part of the back of
my head. That was a real trip! For the first two
years after finishing treatments, I saw my oncologist
every three months and had regular cat scans. I am now
down to once every four months, and twice yearly cat
scans. LOL....just had my first experience with
banana-flavored barium solution a little over a month ago.
Someone tell me why they can't flavor it chocolate, or
strawberry? It's funny. All my doctors have been telling me
how curable HD is, but yet I keep hearing about
people like Brandon Tartikoff battling it for years and
eventually dying from it. One of the oncological nurses told
me that she thinks the incidence of Hodgkin's is on
the rise. All I kept hearing about was how lucky I
was to have only gotten HD. I guess I DO feel that
way. Read some statistics somewhere that say 1 out of
every 3 people will contract some form of cancer. So I
didn't beat the odds, but was lucky anyway. I didn't
really take the threat of re-occurrence seriously until
reading some of these messages. I thought since it has
been a couple of years now, that I was probably out of
the woods. It won't keep me up nights, though. I hope
this abridged recitation of my HD experiences will
help give some of you still dealing with treatment
worries a better picture of what goes on. My story isn't
everyone's, but it is an HD story.