Jayne:
My son took his 16th chemo. treatment on 9-27-05. He retested for restaging on 10-11-05 and he is now cancer free. He doesn't have to go back to MD Anderson until January for retesting. He will then be retested every 3 mos. for 2 yrs. then every 6 mos. for 2 yrs. then every year for the rest of his life. His first 13 chemo treatments were ABVD administered with a decadron steroid that he took during treatment and for 2 days following treatment. The last 3 treatments did not have the bleomyacin in it because it was doing lung damage and they say he has taken hs lifetime dose of bleomyacin. Throughout treatment his counts stayed pretty good (nothing over-the-top)so he was able to take all 16 treatments consecutively.
It sounds like your daughter has some complications that we didn't have to face, I'm sorry. What subtype of Hodgkins does your daughter have? My son had nodular sclerocing, FDG (fast developing growth). I don't have much advise but I know how hard it is to watch your child suffer. Before my son was diagnosed I watched him suffer so. He had drenching night sweats, lost 28 lbs., had a terrible cough. It took almost a year for him to be diagnosed - doctors kept saying he had pneumonia. After his diagnisis, we hurried to MD Anderson and their lymphoma team is wonderful. He felt better after chemo treatment # 1.
I do have to leave for the evening but let's keep up the communicado. I will also keep your daughter in my prayers and my best of thoughts. Shelly