Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Monday, July 5, 2010

Victor(ious) Update

Hi Too all

Good news, Hillary's nodes looks to be smaller with 1 dose of chemo!! She also lost 12 pounds in a week!!

Hillary and all of us have had a terrible week. She had chemo 11 days ago. She had been feeling very good and had even been able to walk 2 miles before that!!   The next  day she had the relay for life and  had to stop  3 times to complete her survivors lap, maybe 100 yards.  The chemo was supposed to be the type that she had tolerated the easiest in the past. That didn't happen. The way I understand it is that the chemo will attach the cancer cells. Hodgkin's disease is a blood born cancer and it attacked her whole body. She was in so much pain that large doses of Morphine would not stop the pain. She was in the hospital on Monday and Tuesday just to get pain meds and get the pain under control. Wednesday she was admitted. She had at least 300mg of morphine before I lost count. We were even more scared when the doctor asked if she had advanced directives if she had to be resuscitated. Hillary had all that taken care of a while ago. Nancy was asked twice more on Thursday!! Hillary was on so much pain medication and still in pain that she cannot remember  anything from Tuesday to Sunday. The reason we know the node shrunk is because as they were looking for the cause of the pain. They did x rays and a cat scan. They tried many other high powered pain killers that would have put the best of us lights out. Finally on Saturday we saw signs of improvement. Sunday she was released. Today she coached Xanders soccer game!! She beat the odds again. Although Xander lost the first game of the season I think just seeing Hillary up and about made it a winning day for me.

So this Thursday she is supposed to do another dose of Chemo. I don't know what will happen. It may be another type of chemo, wait for a while, or see how effective the first dose was and not do another for a while. Hillary's choice will be a tough one. We all hate to see her is so much pain.

Well she has lived to see another day. She never ceases to amaze us. When you are in pain you begin to question if it is worth it. Luckily good medication can make you forget. But not for us watching. I hope I don't have to see that again.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. We are lucky to have such a strong support team.

Vic Nancy, Patrick, Grace, Allen, Heather Pierce, Preston, Jon, Xander and especially Hillary

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