ABVD treatment barely bothered me?

Hines,

I'm glad your chemo experience is mild thus far. There is no real "average" abvd experience, but for the overwhelming majority of users, side-effects only occur later in treatments.  One effect is pretty easy to predict however: You will lose all of your hair within about a week of your second infusion. This is almost universal with these drugs.  And I lost ALL my hair, even eyebrows and eyelashes. 

Virtually any chemo regimen intensifies with more applications.  After two infusions (=1 "cycle") my abvd experience was so mild that I went back to work, thinking "this is nothing."  After two more infusions, however, the bottom fell out.

I lost my sense of taste, my appetite. I got severe neuropathy, losing feeling in my hands and feet, which has never returned, seven years later.  I got a condition known as "Flu-Like Syndrom," in which a person has severe muscle pain, such as the flu would cause.  I developed severe shortness of breath, and my fatigue was so bad I slept 17 hours per day, average.  "Chemo Fog" tends to only manifest itself after several infusions; it is rare early-on. This is characterized by loss of short-term memory, inability to concentrate, and agitation.

All of these are known abvd side-effects.  Most people do not get as many as I had; some have more. I have known a few writers here over the years who had to be hospitalized long-term to continue on treatments.  So the possibilities are wide open: your experience might be mild, it might be bad, or it might be severe. And no doctor can predict how any given patient will react.  But do be aware that it is quite uncommon to just continue feeling like nothing is going on later in combination chemo. How you feel today might become a fond memory quickly. WHat I or someone else had as our particualr set of side effect will be different from yours, in numerous ways.

max