Cancer Banter: Tear-Drenched Hair

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Tear-Drenched Hair

"I crawled into bed with my 13-year old daughter and washed her hair with my tears."

To hear the rest of this story, please come to Gorgeous Stories on Friday, March 14, at 7:30 pm.

WHAT: Gorgeous Stories - Brave, moving and often hilarious new work from Terrie Silverman's Creative Rites workshops

WHEN: Friday, March 14, 7:30 to 9:00 pm

WHERE: Parish Hall

Church of the Angels

1100 N. Avenue 64

Pasadena, CA 91105

ADMISSION: Only $8 and includes a free pot-luck following the show

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What does a writer do when she finds out she has stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma? She blogs. Because, as everyone knows, cancer sucks, but blogging rocks.

On January 26, 2007, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (blastic variety), a rare, aggressive and treatment-resistant form of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

My team at the City of Hope decided to bring out the big guns - six rounds of Hyper CVAD followed by an autologous stem cell transplant. I bounced back after each round of chemo, but my blood counts didn't.

After four rounds we called chemo quits and started collecting stem cells for the auto stem cell transplant. The harvesting took three tries, two drugs and eight weeks, but I finally eked out the minimum two million stem cells.

After megadoses of chemo, I received my stem cells on November 14 and 15, 2007. I bounced back almost immediately. Best of all, I achieved complete remission from the Mantle Cell Lymphoma.

In January 2008, I was hospitalized for 11 days for chemo-induced pneumonia. I bounced back.

In the summer of 2008, my eosinophils (a component of the white blood cells) rose to dangerous levels and infiltrated my lungs and GI tract. My weight dropped to 105 pounds, and I was incapacitated for nearly three months. Once again, I bounced back.

I continue to make monthly visits to the City of Hope for blood tests and check ups, quarterly visits for maintenance Rituxan and semi-annual visits for scans.

I'm still in remission and have more energy than ever. And about that perfect purse? I keep looking.

Here are a few other things keeping me busy:

My food blog, Open Mouth, Insert Fork

My consulting business, A New Leaf Communications

The Orange Cat, a site for family fun in the San Gabriel Valley

A3M - Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches

YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley

IWOSC - Independent Writers of Southern California

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Tear-Drenched Hair

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