Hi
The week before Christmas last year, my daughter who was 29 at the time received a diagnosis of Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
She was told she would need 6 rounds of ABVD and this started almost straight away - she was so very poorly by this stage. After 2 rounds of treatment, she had another PET scan that showed the cancer was responding well to treatment but the consultant decided to change her onto BEACOPP escalated to make sure that all the cancer went and said she would have 4 rounds of the new regime.
The first lot was brutal but we had no idea just how ill the new chemo would be. Treatment for 3 days running, followed by going back on day 8 for another session, followed by daily injections not to mention all the tablets (which I now now is usual) but the point is that after 3 rounds of the new chemo, the Dr wants her to have a PET scan followed by a final round.
Her outlook on life is bleak and she is insisting that she will not have the final round because if the scan shows up as all clear, why should she go through more pain? I have explained that the final round is to make sure it has all gone but her counter-argument is that if it hasn't gone she will need more treatment and if it has gone what's the need for more?
Basically what she is saying is that after this round (3), she is done, no more, had enough - which I do understand - she spent both New Year's eve and her 30th having treatment and she is incredibly sad and also experiencing menopause symptoms.
I feel helpless and guess I am just reaching out to see if anyone else has been in this position and how did they cope with it?