12 Years in Remission

tremen
tremen Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Lymphoma (Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin) #1
I was diagnosed in 1988 with Stage 4B Hodgkins Disease that had spread to just about everywhere in my body including my bone marrow. I went through 3 MOPP and 9 ABVD treatments of Chemotherapy. It took 18 months to complete all the treatments because of the normal low blood counts and I had shingles and a bad reaction to MOPP. They stopped MOPP when the bad reaction happened and I continued with ABVD for the remainder of the treatments. I feel fine and lead a normal life as if I never had the nasty big "C". I was 29 when diagnosed and am 43 now. My body changed after Chemo but all in all...I am doing fine. Anybody with questions or that just want to talk, feel free to contact me.

Good Luck to all of you.

Mike

Comments

  • carpentert
    carpentert Member Posts: 13
    #2
    That's great to hear! I've been in remission for 1 year now. The changes your body goes through after chemo is amazing and strange... even kind of funny sometimes. I'm doing really well, and I also look forward to being available for other Hodgkins Survivors to talk to.

    Tracey
  • lmpg
    lmpg Member Posts: 7
    #3
    Hi Mike...
    I was diagnosed (IIa)with Hodgkins in Nov. 2001. I went through 12 rounds ABVD and about 26 radiation treatments. My doc says I'm "disease free." It's been a long 10 months as you can imagine. I was 27 at diagnosis, no prior family history and have always very healthy. It was a shot out of the blue to say the least.

    I'm doing well, my spirits have been sky high, even throughout all the treatments. I had one goal in mind and that was to beat this and to defeat it forever. Keeping the mind "in check" and having a positive outlook is more than half of this battle as you know.

    Questions for you...
    1. What sorts of things are you doing now to remain healthy and in remission? For example, are you takin lots of vitamins, watching your diet, etc? Just wondering what you may be doing. I'm doing my regular multi, walking 2 to 3 miles just about every day and I eat very healthy without turning into some health "freak". I do reward myself with the occasional cheeseburger or chips and dip!

    2. What do you do to keep your mental spirits up and to keep yourself from allowing yourself to get overwhelmed with thoughts of "is it back?" "what's that little pain mean?"

    3. Do you ever have what I term, "phantom pain" in the area in which you may have had your biopsy? While I know there's nothing there, sometimes, my mind gets to dwelling on "it" and that area seems tender. I know from having a C-section that the scar areas tend to be a bit more sensitive, but sometimes I think since I'm still new at being "post treatment" I tend to over worry.

    Well, thanks for listening to me. Hope to hear from you! Continued best wishes to you! You go guy! I want to be 12, 20, 30, 50 + years in remission some day! My goal is to celebrate my 100th birthday with one hell of a party!

    :-) Happy days to you... Lisa
  • carpentert
    carpentert Member Posts: 13
    #4
    lmpg said:

    Hi Mike...
    I was diagnosed (IIa)with Hodgkins in Nov. 2001. I went through 12 rounds ABVD and about 26 radiation treatments. My doc says I'm "disease free." It's been a long 10 months as you can imagine. I was 27 at diagnosis, no prior family history and have always very healthy. It was a shot out of the blue to say the least.

    I'm doing well, my spirits have been sky high, even throughout all the treatments. I had one goal in mind and that was to beat this and to defeat it forever. Keeping the mind "in check" and having a positive outlook is more than half of this battle as you know.

    Questions for you...
    1. What sorts of things are you doing now to remain healthy and in remission? For example, are you takin lots of vitamins, watching your diet, etc? Just wondering what you may be doing. I'm doing my regular multi, walking 2 to 3 miles just about every day and I eat very healthy without turning into some health "freak". I do reward myself with the occasional cheeseburger or chips and dip!

    2. What do you do to keep your mental spirits up and to keep yourself from allowing yourself to get overwhelmed with thoughts of "is it back?" "what's that little pain mean?"

    3. Do you ever have what I term, "phantom pain" in the area in which you may have had your biopsy? While I know there's nothing there, sometimes, my mind gets to dwelling on "it" and that area seems tender. I know from having a C-section that the scar areas tend to be a bit more sensitive, but sometimes I think since I'm still new at being "post treatment" I tend to over worry.

    Well, thanks for listening to me. Hope to hear from you! Continued best wishes to you! You go guy! I want to be 12, 20, 30, 50 + years in remission some day! My goal is to celebrate my 100th birthday with one hell of a party!

    :-) Happy days to you... Lisa

    Regarding the "Phantom Pain" where you had your biopsy... Sometimes, I think it's like a barometer. It gets sore when the weather changes. Isn't that the strangest thing?

    Stay healthy! I like your attitude.

    Tracey

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