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Relapse just another lump I was in remission for Christmas and New Year's, most of the time writing my book. It seemed a little short -- so a lump popped up. Oh great, here it goes again... I found it about 2 weeks after radiation had ended, in the middle of January 1998. Asymptomatic, I hoped it was a cold or something. No luck. I had a biopsy on a Saturday that confirmed a recurrence of Hodgkins. the blind CT I had a CT scan a few days before I had my lump biopsied, and it said I was in remission. My mediastinal mass was actually re-absorbing, growing slowly smaller. The lump didn't show -- I re-assured myself it wasn't Hodgkins. I also got a bad viral infection, and couldn't eat at all. My family doc said that it was cause I was dehydrated so I started to drink and drink all day and it soon went away. It's an innocent lump I tell you! "a 500% increase in tissue sales this week..." I cried a few hours at a time, I took a break every once in a while. Well, now I had both perspectives -- Hodgkins being a blessing, and Hodgkins being a snotty, rapidly multiplying ass. Now that I see both sides, I won't have to have any more relapses (hint hint). Refusing to rewrite the end of my still-unpublished book, I decided I'd have to beat it good this time. Now if I could only find it... way too many acronyms this year, only a month stale so far... I had a Gallium-67 Scan after my bone marrow biopsy came back negative. I have minor abnormality (involvement) in or near my original chest mass, but it's not completely active. No known lymph node involvement. At the end of February I am getting a Hickman Catheter placed, and I'm keeping my port at the same time. March 2nd I will start on Cytoxin/VP-16 chemotherapy, and will have stem cells collected later in the month. Hopefully will have autologous stem cell rescue around late April, or sometime during May if all goes well. The medical society has renamed stem cell transplants as stem cell rescues. preparing for the transplant/rescue I am going to have high-dose Cytoxin and Busulfan immediately prior my transplant, wish me luck! My grandparents bought me a laptop (thanks!) so that I could have an Internet connection while I'm stuck at the hospital. Going for the Cure... I'm going to beat the beast this time around... wonder if I should ask it what it wants for it's last meal. I'll kill it if it says beef jerky, hoping for it to say steak. ;) |
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