Adrienne started the week with a cough that turned from mild to very bad in a few days. To avoid a trip to City of Hope, she decided to go to the health center at school. They told her to come back in a few days if she didn't feel better. After I spoke with her oncologist, she got to take a trip to City of Hope later that day for a real checkup. Adrienne had a chest xray and physical exam plus labs. After determining that there was no pneumonia or progression of her disease, the doctor put her on a course of antibiotics and cough medicine with codeine. Adrienne then spent a day and half in bed, but is finally feeling better today. For other people, having a viral infection isn't fun but it usually doesn't cause much harm. For Adrienne, it can go from bad to worse very quickly because Hodgkin's Disease affects her immune system, so we watch these things very closely.
Adrienne is feeling better today, though her sinuses are still bothering her. Her sinusitis has been chronic and she would like to have surgery, but there never seems to be a good window of opportunity when she's in remission and has free time. Hopefully, this will be a quiet week as Adrienne is in "project mode" at school and is very busy. President Bill Clinton will be speaking at CMC next Sunday so hopefully Adrienne will be feeling great by then.
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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.
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