it makes you nervous
I don’t normally comment here on current events or on politics. But the news that Sen. Arlen Specter’s cancer returned gave me a pause. Specter is a fellow Hodgkin’s survivor. Like me, he had advanced disease. He made it three years in remission — generally HD, if it comes back, makes it’s ugly presence known in the first two years — and yet still relapsed even though he claims that he was feeling great.
Specter had a couple strikes against him — he’s a male (sorry guys being male is a negative prognostic factor in advanced stage HD), he was stage 4B (that’s as bad as it gets), and he was over 45 (age being another negative prognostic factor).
Nevertheless, it makes you nervous. And it makes you wonder what you’d do if your number comes up. Stem cell transplantation is the usual treatment for relapsed Hodgkin’s Disease and it cures some people, but given the state of my lungs, I’d have to think long and hard about it. I kind of feel as though I don’t have another fight like that left in me. Eight months worth of ABVD pretty much knocked all the wind and fight out.
There’s also a fear of being left worse off having done something extreme like a stem cell transplant than you would have been just trying to manage and control the Hodgkin’s Disease (even acknowledging that there would be no cure).
Hopefully, it is not something I ever need to consider, but it’s always in the back of the mind and it makes it really difficult to plan and live your life.
Tags: cancer, chemotherapy, hodgkin's, specter, survival
Hopefully, you never have to worry about this.
I, too, am sorry about Arlen Specter, but that’s him, not you. And, he’s WAY over 45. And, like you, a lawyer [meaningless, in this context]. I shall pray for Arlen, as I do for you. Try not to let it get you down; impossible, I know.
Hearing about anyone’s cancer relapsing has got to be scary, but (as you’ve already noted) he has more risk factors, and you also presumably lead a healthier lifestyle. You’ll be fine!
It’s always scary to hear about someone having reoccuring cancer. You think that could have been me.
It’s like having the “Sword of Damocles” hanging over you with a fraying thread.