update

Joseph's sister, Kim, is spending the week with us while I recover from treatment #8 (yahoooo!) and while Joseph is at a Pepper meeting in Morocco. So, she took me to the center this morning and Tuscano met with me to explain the results of yesterday's tests. He said that my lung function has lowered 20%, meaning my lungs aren't floating oxygen past the membranes of the lungs and into my bloodstream efficiently enough..... and it is from the Bleomycin. So, I will no longer be needing that lovely chemical in my regime. What does that mean? I just read a depressing publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The Mayo Clinic studied groups of Hodgkin's patients who developed Bleomycin Toxicity and compared them with patients who weren't affected. Shall I relay the good news or the bad? Okay, let's get the bad out of the way....This study found that the overall survival rate of patients with toxicity decreased from 90% to 63%. Shit. And they didn't die from Hodgkin's, they died from pulmonary syndrome. Shit again. The good news? I am under 40 (by the skin of my teeth), which statistically is a good factor, and I don't have an acute form of the toxicity. Chances are I'll stay in remission and my lungs with recover. I think I'm going to leave reading these abstracts to Joseph. He filters for me so I don't FREAK OUT. Now I get to stay up all night, high on steroids, and think about these new developments.

I'll put my big girl panties on tomorrow.....