Good news, bad news
The good news was going to be that I finished a big writing project that I started 5 1/2 months ago, and it’s a huge relief.
But who cares? The bad news is that my sister is having a stem cell transplant. Or is that good news? It’s hard to decide… as in, the good news is that the doctors didn’t rule out a transplant, so there’s hope it might work. The bad news is having cancer in the first place… combined with several years of physically draining "treatment" which didn’t make any progress in curing the disease… plus the prospect of going through a risky transplant procedure… all of which is pretty bad news, after all.
My sister reads this blog, too, so if you have some encouraging thoughts, she could use them. Although you must be VERY CAREFUL in framing your encouraging thoughts, since she is a scientist. If you try to say (helpfully) that your "neighbor’s sister’s kid had leukemia and is totally fine after a transplant", she will IMMEDIATELY REJECT your anecdote on the grounds that she is (1) not a kid, (2) has Hodgkins lymphoma, not leukemia and (3) has 5 other risk factors/counterindications you don’t know about that makes her case totally different from your neighbor’s sister’s kid, as quantitatively analyzed in a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. In fact, the science is really not very comforting in this case. It is all about finding the energy to continue to hope.
Best of luck to your sister.
Comment by working — October 10, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
You can still revel in the completion of your project. I am sure your sister is happy for you in this accomplishment, just as you are happy that she has an additional option for feeling better after the aggressive treatments she has undergone. It’s not that the science isn’t comforting, it’s just that there are no definitive answers because every individual and their situation is unique. However, if the stem cell transplant has been brought up by her doctors, there’s every chance that she’ll be able to replenish her blood cells and that’s positive. As you say, the bad news is having the cancer to begin with, but as some Roman said a while ago, “dum spiro spero”.
Comment by Alethea — October 10, 2007 @ 7:58 pm
First: Thinking of you and your sister.
I guess the most encouraging thought I can give right now, is that no matter how small a chance is, even if it’s 10% or 2%, someone will end up being that tiny percentage.
Anecdote: I’m about six years from diagnosis with Hodgkin’s Disease this week, and I know that statistics can be grim - especially if you’re not in the lucky majority that go into remission with the first round of treatment, but there are some people who make it through anyway. I failed to go into remission with radiotherapy/regular chemotherapy, so went straight onto high dose chemo and a transplant at that point. I don’t/didn’t have the best prognostic factors, and my transplant wasn’t easy, but if I’m still in remission this December, that will be five years.
Comment by Anonymous — October 10, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
I knew a post-doc who got lymphoma in his young 30’s. One of his responces was to write up everything he’d kinda partly done but felt wasn’t quite ready for publication. It turns out that most of it was good work anyway, and the resultant flood of papers made him a bit of a star in his sub-field and scored him a permanent job.
Since he lived in a very rigid, bureaucratic country, once he had that job he simply wasn’t allowed to die.
Good luck to your sister. I hope the transplant goes well, and she makes the most of those aspects of her life over which she does still have control.
Comment by Lab Lemming — October 12, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Good Luck. We all pray for her
Comment by Mariam Y — October 15, 2007 @ 6:10 am