Susan really hasn't changed much in physical appearance. What do you think?
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March 2008 - Sometimes I feel like a wig.
Sometimes I don't.
Up a tree and feeling on top of the world
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- About Stem Cell Transplants
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- City of Hope
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- Daily Survival Guide for Serious Illness (Gilda's Club and the Tom McDermitt Fund)
- Histopathology of MCL
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- Your Brain After Chemo
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
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
March 2008 - Sometimes I feel like a wig.
Sometimes I don't.
January 2009
Up a tree and feeling on top of the world
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2009
(102)
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January
(18)
- POP goes the bottle
- My name is Susan and I'm a Yahoo! Group junkie
- A Water Bottle by Any Other Name
- O-Spam-a Musubi
- Zippity Doo Dah to Mutts for Marrow
- I love a parade!
- Mutts on the Move - KTLA Channel 5 on Friday Morning
- Be the Change in 2009!
- Getting Crabby
- Long, slim, slimy worms are back!
- Crafty Bits
- It's in the Bag
- Mutts for Marrow to March in Doo Dah Parade
- The Conservative Gardener
- My Boots and My Bike!!!
- Good Grief - Leaving a garden can be painful
- What's in store for 2009?
- One More Reason I HEART City of Hope
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January
(18)
Cancer Banter
I can't die. I still have to find the perfect purse.
13 comments:
No wonder she's looking for the perfect purse -- she has the perfect shoes already.
You're good Piper.
LOL, AH. Yes, those were the perfect shoes!
For just a nanosecond, I wondered why there was a menorah in the window.
Oops, silly me!
menorah missing a few lights...but hey, it was a miracle, right?
perfect shoes. perfect ride. now, for that bag!
Menorah : ). Paula, I still chuckle about the Yiddish word-a-day calendar and "verklempt".
This is one of my favorite photos. I also like the one of Dad, Mom, you and I, sitting on the ground in front of Grandma's garden. You were probably about 1 year old and looking exuberantly frisky.
Maybe if you ask real nice, Piper, she'll let you post that one too.
Hey, Sis, do you have the family pic of us at Grandma's garden? I can't find it.
I do have that photo in front of the corn field, but I wouldn't say I look "exuberantly frisky." I look more annoyingly grumpy (and chubby).
My scanner is on the fritz, but maybe I can get someone to scan it for me.
take a digital photo of the pic and send it! Not as crisp, but it's a start until the scanner breathes life.
and wait, YOU, grumpy? never! ;-)
Oh, I think I speak for us all when I say bring on the plump and cross Susan.
(As my word ver sez, "Protto". Sorry, I have a cold. I meant pronto.
No wonder I couldn't find it. I don't remember you looking grumpy. Me thinks a poll is needed.
AH, my little sis was quite the robust toddler. Our Grandma would call it "fleshy". Susan was very fleshy as a wee child.
Yes, I was "fleshy" for the first 18 months of my life and then became a bean pole.
And, yes, I was surly in that pic. Wil post soon.
I was going to say, yes, it looks like you, but you're, uhm, TALLER now. I think you might weigh about the same tho!
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