2/29/04 - Stephen began new treatments at the end of last year.  While a little more physically difficult to take, they seem to have shrunk his cancer to smaller than it was last June.  The doctor said that this treatment won't send him into remission, but hopefully it will continue to shrink the disease as long as he can tolerate it.

There still  has been no sign of possible donors.  They have gone through the NMDP Registry as well as International Registries looking for perfect matches (8/8 antigens) as well as slightly mismatches (6/8 or 7/8) and no luck.

General Info. from June 2003 - Present

Stephen was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease for the third time in June of 2003.  We were told that his options were palliative care or a mini-transplant.  The transplant is his only chance at long-term survival.  The transplant is not guaranteed to work, but it is his best hope for a future.

Until we can find a donor, Stephen is undergoing chemotherapy treatments in hopes of shrinking his tumors or at least keeping them from growing.  He went through treatments with Gemcytobine every other week for 2 months.  It initially helped, but it was affecting his blood counts and the dose was cut, making it less effective.  Stephen is now being treated weekly with Velban chemotherapy.

The doctor can’t be as aggressive as he would like to be because the chemo drugs are affecting his blood counts too much.  This is due to the fact that Stephen’s blood counts had never fully recovered from his transplant in February of 2002.

The doctor will be able to be more aggressive with treatments once a donor is located.  It will be necessary to shrink the tumors as much as possible before the transplant can take place.

There still exist some possibilities on the Registry.  Some people that were tested before current testing technologies are showing that they are potential matches at the lower resolution technology.  They are in the process of having these people further tested with current molecular technology to see if any match.  So far, none have.  We are still hoping that one of them will or that one of the people we are recruiting for the Registry will be a match.

Fortunately, Stephen has been able to maintain pretty good spirits.  The chemotherapy usually brings him down the day of and the day after treatment, but he has been able to do some enjoyable things the rest of the week.  He particularly appreciates company, so he would love visits from friends and family.  

11/4/03 – This week Stephen was able to take a break from chemo.  It has been hitting his blood counts too hard and maybe his spirit a little too.  Hopefully a week off will allow him to rest up for more treatments.

11/24/03 - Stephen received chemotherapy treatments the last two weeks, but will have this week off because his blood counts are low.  It will also be nice for him to have this break before Thanksgiving, which we are having at our house.  This will be a first for us.  I've never made a turkey before, so we'll see how that goes.  I guess it doesn't matter for me since I don't eat it anyway : )

12/30/03 - Sorry I haven't updated in a while.  Stephen has been hanging in there.  A recent CT Scan showed that the mass in his chest has grown slightly, but the one in his neck has not and it has not spread anywhere new.  The doctor has started him on a new set of chemo drugs (Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Dacarbazine, and Prednisone).  He will get the first three chemo drugs every other week and will take the Prednisone (a steroid) every other day.  We're hoping that this will shrink the disease some and we're still holding out hope for finding a donor.