Adrienne has just three more radiation treatments to go, and none too soon. She seems to go from one discomfort to another. Last week, her throat was bothering her a lot and she had a dry cough to go along with it. Now her skin feels like it's sunburnt although there's no visible burn. The short term side effects from the radiation may take several weeks to go away after she finishes treatment. In the long term, she will probably lose her thyroid but it is easy to take a daily thyroid replacement. She really can't wait for this to all be over so she can get back to a somewhat normal schedule.
This weekend, I did the Nike Women's Marathon (the half) and it was a lot of fun. It was a bit sad not having Adrienne there since we all did it last year, but lots of people asked about her and are thinking of her, which is really nice. It's always nice to see so many TNTers from across the country working to raise money for blood-related cancers, but also sad to see that so many people are still suffering.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Adrienne was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in 1996 at age 9. She had multiple relapses, two bone marrow transplants, and a range of chemos and radiation therapies, and passed away on October 1, 2009. We are heartbroken.
Out with the Girls
About Adrienne
- Adrienne
- Adrienne was very much like others with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the most common cancer in teens and young adults. What was unusual is that she had it for more than half her life and ultimately, it took her life. Hodgkin's is curable for about 80% people, but Adrienne was one of the 20% for whom a cure was elusive. She considered herself lucky since treatments had been there for her with each relapse but she ran out of treatment options and her body just couldn’t take any more. As she said, "Though I’ve now had cancer for most of my life, I no longer plan my life around it; instead, I try to plan cancer around my life." We hope you can take inspiration from her and how she lived her life.
No comments:
Post a Comment