This is a photo blog ... so here is my photo journal of my year with Hodgkin's Disease ... I figure it might be interesting to people newly diagnosed with the disease to see, visibly, someone recover from the disease.
March 23, 2006
About a year before I was officially diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. This is about the time I first noticed my stomach mass ... which I didn't actually know at the time was a stomach mass.
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January 18, 2007
This photo was taken the day before I got my first CT scan. I had obviously been out running in the snow.
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February 17, 2007
Just one month after the photo above was taken. In the brief one month time between these photos, I worsened a lot. This is me the day after I met my oncologist for the first time and about six days before starting chemo on February 23. My face is visibly swollen from superior vena cava syndrome. I remember my oncologist had a student with him and he said to her "look at the patient, what is wrong with her appearance?" The student was like uh, her face is swollen. My oncologist was like yes, what else? I'm sure the student was trying to be nice. My oncologist blurts out "she has a bull neck! young ladies should not have bull necks." Anyway, I couldn't sleep laying down because I felt like I was literally suffocating. I guess if anyone ever doubts whether I had cancer or not this photo should provide the proof ....
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February 27, 2007
Four days after my first treatment. My BF asked to see my port scar. I said, "OK, but I look absolutely awful..." But you can see my face isn't quite as swollen. ABVD chemo works fast. Fortunately.
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March 13, 2007
This is me a few days after my second treatment, and about ten days after I turned 27. You can see my face now looks A LOT less swollen ... But I still have that yellowish tinge to my skin. I never figured out if that was because the disease was in my liver or if it was just caused by the chemo.
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April 18, 2007
A few days before treatment #5.
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May 8, 2007
May 8, 2007 -- after coming home from a run. This photograph was taken after treatment #6. There are two chemotherapy treatments in each ABVD cycle, so this is at the end of my third official cycle of chemotherapy.
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May 30, 2007
This is me right before treatment #8, which was the last part of cycle number four.
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June 26, 2007
This photo was taken a few days before treatment #10, the end of cycle number five. I was having a lot of problems with my lungs, but as you can see my hair didn't get the memorandum that it was all supposed to fall out ... This was the darkest part of treatment for me.
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July 19, 2006
This is after a "run" during treatment #11. I use the term "run" very loosely because for June and July 2007 all I could do is jog slowly. I would cough up blood a lot after I run ... I was too afraid to tell my oncologist because I thought he would tell me I HAD to stop running. I couldn't bear to stop running.
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July 25, 2007
A few days before the last treatment of cycle number 6. Most people get to stop after 6 cycles (12 treatments), but lucky me ... I get to do 8 cycles of ABVD.
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August 3, 2007
Pretty tired of treatment. This is about a week before treatment #13 which was the start of cycle #7.
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August 17, 2007
A week after treatment #13 at Gettysburg in the Peach Orchard. It was really hot!
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September 10, 2007
I've officially had enough. A few days after treatment #15.
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October 1, 2007
Sitting on my porch about a week after finishing treatment #16.
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October 30, 2007
About a month and a half after finishing treatment.
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And here are a few more recent photos ...
July 11, 2008
This is me a few months short of a year after finishing ABVD.
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April 25, 2009
A little over two years after being diagnosed -- with my friend Bob after a local race.
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October 23, 2011
This is me four years after finishing ABVD. :)
