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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Thursday, November 18, 2010

update from dad

On 11/17/2010 10:48 PM, Victor St. Pierre wrote: Hi Too AllThanksgiving is right around the corner. My favorite Holiday as  can just be thankful for all we have. Good food, good friends and hopefully good health.  I am truly blessed as I am still able to play soccer at the ripe old age of 53. I turn 1 year older on Saturday. Well this is a Hillary update so enough about my staying young thoughts. Hillary has not had the energy to post anything on her Blog so I thought I would send out an update. Since Hillary got out of the hospital last Monday( I think) she has not been able to do much. She had a Cat scan this Monday. The results determined that the cancer has not grown. Yea!  The results also shows that the cancer has not shrunk either. The main spot is next to the heart.  Damn!  She was too sick to do chemo on Tuesday. We really don't know if it is working or not. Maintaining status quo would be ok if the rest of her body would agree. Her regiments of steroids, pharisees, morphine, chemo, anti nausea drugs, pain control, some thing to make her eat, sleep and poop are all taking a toll on the rest of her body. The worse is the damage it does to her mind. The chemo brain makes it hard to remember. Hodgekins Lymphoma has a 90% cure rate. The rest of the 10% must be killed by the treatment. Better living through chemistry is not working.Hillary was admitted to Dartmouth again tonight. Same reasons as last week. They never found out what the cause of the fever was. She was giving large doses of anti biotic until she felt better. Probably the same treatment this week. She has not been able to recover enough between bouts to really put up the best fight. We really just don't know anything. Our Doctors are good but they have run out of things to try. There is not a manual to follow with Hillary. She is writing her own script.         She has always been special.I am listening to her blog music as I am writing this. The song now I'm a winner. She still has the attitude. The sports competitive attitude can get you a long way in life and it has. I just hope that the right team combination along with great coaching and great fans can get at least a tie. Enough of the sports analogies. I wish I knew what the next step is but we just will play it as it comes. (song Now is Live like your dying by The script)This is all that Hillary has posted on her Blog this week "Dear God, I pray that You will guide someone to find a cure for cancer.Amen "  I hope the prayers are answered soonLoveVic, Nancy, Pat & Grace, Heather & Allen, Pierce, Preston, Jon, Xander and especially Hillar

3 comments:

linda keenan said...

i am thinking of hillary and her family and i know others who check in on her and pray for her but may not comment. thank you for updating us - hillary has tremendous spirit and i wish she was not suffering.

Loraine Ritchey said...

I just have this feeling ( my son died within 17 months of being diagnosed with the "curable cancer" HL that there is more to this refractory HL than meets the eye , my gut is it is something to do with Mono and how it is an enabler for the cancer , I don't know....all I know is my beautiful youn g strong atheletic son is no longer here and it seems to me as his body healed from all the treatment it didn't recognize the cancer cells as a problem and I still think it has something to do with mono and that is what they should have been looking at in the first place... but it is too late for my Chris but damn it someone needs to think out of the box with this refractory HL...... there is something else going on ..... Loraine

B. said...

Vick --

I'm reading Loraine's post, and have done tons of research as well (I've had refractory Hl for four years now).

Has Hillary's tumor ever been tested as EBV positive? There is a slim chance (mine was) that hers could be which correlates with the Epstein Barr Virus (ie mono and other immune difficiencies). They are creating a vaccine for this in HL patients down at Baylor Hospital in Texas, and people like Hillary and I who have very little success at remissions are, acheiving them.

I also, continue to advocate that you and Hillary go see Dr. O'conner in NY. I've had the doctors at Dana Farber, they are excellent. I used to live in Boston, I know them all... but they DO NOT have the same resources as Dr. O and his long list of clinical trials.

Please, please, I'd love to talk or email you, I know Hil is not in great shape right now (Hil, I'm so sorry you're having such a rough go at it at the moment). I really think you guys need to take the steps just to have a CONSULT with Dr. O'conner, having a second opinion does not mean you need to give up on your team in Bosotn, in fact, many times I had Dr O work with my team in Boston when Dana Farber had treatment there for me...

Please, please, email me: RebekahFurey@mac.com

I'm worried.

Sending Love,
Bekah