Bryan's Great Cancer Adventure!

Bryan's Great Cancer Adventure!

These are links to all my blog posts related to my experience with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer that is very treatable. While some people prefer to keep such matters private, I felt it would help me to keep friends and family informed of my progress. It's also sometimes nice to go back and re-read what I wrote and what I went through. To make that easier, and for people who didn't know I had cancer, I've created this repository of links to all the relevant blog posts. (All links will open in a new window.)

Here are the pertinent details:
Hodgkin's Lymphoma (also called "Hodgkin Lymphoma" or "Hodgkin's Disease")
Stage IIa, nodular sclerosing
Diagnosed December 2004 (age 24)
Prescribed 6 cycles (months) of ABVD chemotherapy plus 4 weeks radiation
ABVD = adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine
Adverse lung reaction to bleomycin; discontinued bleomycin for remaining 2.5 cycles
Finished chemo June 2005
Finished radiation July 25, 2005

With this treatment (the gold standard, developed in Italy in the 1970s) 85-90% of Hodgkin's patients never have cancer again. However, both the chemo and radiation can lead to secondary cancers (especially lung cancer) among those other 10-15%. The bleomycin can cause lung problems later in life -- it did for me during treatment, and we had to discontinue that drug. Hodgkin's is more common in men age 15-35 and over 55. It has no known cause.

All patients react to the drugs a little differently, but with the help of anti-nausea steroids like Kytril, I endured the chemo fairly well. I never once felt nauseous as a result of the chemo (only anxiety a few times). I had to give myself a growth factor shot (Neupogen) every day for seven days after each chemo session so my white blood cell count would be high enough in time for the next treatment. As the months wore on, I would feel lethargic after each treatment sooner and sooner, for about a day and a half. I became increasingly indecisive and "spaced out" on those days, and it became hard even to decide what to eat for lunch.

After I was done with chemo and radiation, I had CAT scans every four months for two years to check for new growth. I will then have some combination of CAT scans, chest X-rays, and/or blood tests every six months for five years. My normal energy level came back almost immediately, and I have felt fine since. My oncologist (cancer doctor) attributes this to my age, since some people take as much as five years before they are back to their pre-cancer energy levels.

11/17/04: lump

11/18/04: still plenty of unknowns, but it doesn't look good

11/19/04: biopsy

11/20/04: blood test results

11/23/04: consultation

11/24/04: well that took all day

11/30/04: biopsy results

12/1/04: yet more tests

12/2/04: um, ow

12/3/04: much better

12/5/04: still here

12/8/04: result of today's visit