My name is Steve Arnold. I am 37 years old and am being treated for Stage 4B Hodgkin's Disease. I was diagnosed in June of '96 after about 6 months of strange symptoms (ie. inexplicable fevers, night sweats etc.). Like you (Diana), they said the disease was "everywhere".

Fortunatly, I live in Scottsdale, AZ about a block from the Mayo Clinic and am being treated by some of the finest oncologists in the country. Anyways, I went through 8 mos. of ABVD chemo. At 6 mos. they declared me "disease free" and decided to harvest my stem cells from my marrow to be frozen. In the possible case of a relapse I could have a autologous bone marrow transplant with stem cell replacement.

In March '97 of I relapsed, and after two months of ABVD/MOPP chemo I am sitting her in the Bone Marrow transplant unit of the Mayo Clinic at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. I just finished the course of High Dose Chemo (not fun!) and am in my 2 day rest period before they infuse my stem cells on Monday. If all goes well, I should be home resting within 2 weeks, and back to work after another month at home.

When I relapsed, I was feeling fine except that I woke up one day and my left pinky and ring fingers where numb. Docs suspected tumor growth in my neck. MRI confirmed. So, I received 10 days of radiation followed by the 2 mos. of chemo before arriving here at the hospital.

It was actually much harder for me to deal with the news of the relapse than with the original diagnosis. For some reason, after my clean bill of health after the first round of chemo, I was so naive that I thought that I would never have to deal with HD again! When I heard of the relapse and the course of treatment, I felt as though I had just climbed Mount Everest, and when I got to the top, the docs said no, that wasn't Mount Everest, that was just one of the foothills of Mount Everest. THERE'S MOUNT EVEREST!!! So I'm now climbing Mount Everest.

My advise to anyone dealing with HD (or any other similar illness) is to not fall off your emotional guard with regard to what can happen with this disease. It CAN come back, and odds are (especially if your stage 4) it probably will! But you can deal with it and still beat it! Even if it comes back again and again. Don't loose hope! But don't be naive either (as I was).

©1997 Diana L.E.G. Hinnrichs