My 35th National Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Month
“If you are going to get a cancer, this is the one you want to get.” I was actually told that more than 35 years ago when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease back in 1988. Though the statement made my blood boil, I initially missed the doctor’s follow up sentence as to why I was so lucky. At the time, Hodgkin’s was considered one of the most treatable cancers, with a remission rate around 85%. Now to be clear, that 85% is to make it to the five year mark. After that, you were on your own. Today, the success rate is even higher, in the low to mid 90’s, but again, that is still for that five year mark. In the 35 years since I was treated, both treatments that I underwent, extreme high dose radiation and the chemotherapy regimen of MOPP-ABV are no longer used, using safer treatments, in lesser amounts, with better results.
(photo courtesy of Amazon.com, available $15 at the following link: https://a.co/d/2JRZsZ3)
In the 35 years since I was diagnosed, so much information and resources have come out about Hodgkin’s compared to NOTHING. Of course, I wrote and published my first book, “Paul’s Heart – Life As A Dad And A 35-Year Cancer Survivor”, detailing my life from diagnosis through treatments, and the decades that followed. Of course, I began writing “Paul’s Heart” the blog more than a dozen years ago. I am even publishing TikTok videos on my history with Hodgkin’s @PaulsHeart2022 .
Social media has played quite a role in getting information into the hands of new patients and survivors, more than from the big players such as the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia And Lymphoma Society. And today, there is an organization committed to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma specifically, with accessability around the world, Hodgkin’s International.
There is so much information available for new patients and survivors, newer and older. Medicine has finally caught up with discovering the need to follow up patients beyond the five year mark. Medical facilities have created survivorship clinics to help patients deal with any late side effects from treatments that have developed. And of course, perhaps the best of all, this world wide web has given the opportunity for patients and survivors to meet others who have gone through what they did, not just online, but in person.
The above photos were from a symposium hosted by Hodgkin’s International, bringing together patients, survivors, doctors, and other medical advocates, to talk, share, and discuss the issues of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was even honored to be one of the panel speakers (I am actually seated next to the doctor who had taken care of me most of my survivorship, as well as another of my doctors at the end of the table).
Yes, a lot has happened over 35 years. Perhaps you have been reading “Paul’s Heart” from day one, and perhaps have read my book. It is my hope with all the efforts that I have shared, that somehow, I have providing you hope and inspiration.
With that said, there are other “awarenesses” this month, of course related to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Hodgkin’s is considered a childhood cancer, and a blood cancer, as well as Lymphoma. And of course there is Non-Hodgkin’s and Leukemia. Chances are, these 35 years later, back when I knew noone who had ever had Hodgkin’s, your life has been touched by someone with any one of these cancers. Like I said, treatments are successful, but not perfect. We still need them to be safer, and 100% successful.
Paul's Heart 