Failure is Not An Option

2/25/03: Now that I know I’m going with 8 weeks of Stanford V, it’s time to get started. Sheila explained how the treatment would go (alternating weeks of drugs - odd weeks are hard, and even weeks are easy. There are two weeks in the middle where I go for chemo two days in a row). I’ll also have a number of drugs to take at home, mostly to prevent problems with my digestion (food not staying down, or, to put it delicately, food refusing to come out). I’m to drink two liters of water a day, avoid supplemental calcium, take my anti-nausea medicine if needed (don’t mess around with home remedies like flat 7-up), and run, don’t walk, to the phone if my fever is ever over 100.5.

I have a dizzying array of pills to take, and most of them aren’t on the same schedule. I made an Excel spreadsheet for myself of what to take when, then Mike and my mom (both of whom had been at the meeting where Sheila explained it) checked it for me.

The “infusion room” (what am I, a teabag?) is in a separate part of the maze they call the Stanford Medical Center, so Sheila took my mom and me there. It looks like a set of big cubicles, each with theoretically enough space to give chemo to four patients at a time, but much more comfortable as two to a cubie. There are also warm blankets, drinks, and snacks for the patients.

2/18/03: Assuming I really am at stage 2A, the question for treatment is whether to go for the standard regimen (ABVD chemotherapy plus radiation), or with the new regimen being tested at Stanford (Stanford V chemotherapy, with radiation if any tumors are big enough to warrant it). ABVD is 3 months of chemo, given every other week, followed by five weeks of radiation. The Stanford V regimen is either 12 weeks of chemo, or 8 of chemo followed by 5 of radiation, and the chemo is given weekly. The drugs in the Stanford V regimen have fewer long-term effects on the lungs. (more…)

Hodgkin’s has four stages, corresponding to how far the disease has spread. Each stage is designated “A” or “B”, depending on whether the patient has symptoms (B) or not (A). I already knew I wasn’t stage I, because Dr. Naruns had found some other swollen lymph nodes in my neck. The first order of business with Dr. Yu was to figure out which of the other stages I was. (more…)

1/28/03: How do you discover that you have Hodgkin’s, anyway? When Emmy had strep in December, I wasn’t feeling too well either. I felt my neck for swollen glands, and felt something like a small bean in the side of my neck. (more…)