Guest guest Posted March 6, 2001 Report Share Posted March 6, 2001 JENN 2) Location Cincinnati, Ohio 3) Personal Info Well, Here we go.. .husnband 12/24/97 dxd Hodgkins Disease Stage IV-B, Nodular Sclerosing, treated with ABVD, relapsed within 3 months, had stem cell/bone marrow transplant and 4 weeks radiation. He is on HRT for men and was just diagnosed last week with Obstructive Sleep Apena and has a CPAP machine. I have suffered with chronic depression for almost 10 years now. 4) Interests I enjoy playing piano and french horn, my cats, my new dog, and taking care of my daughter Sharon. 5) Email YES Jenn Friedhoff <bmomjenn@...> 6) ICQ / AOL / MSN 154391254/Peppymintpatty 7) Webpage http://www.angelfire.com/oh/Jenns1Page 8) Birthday 10/10/1977 Libra On Behalf of the Being Sick Community welcome to the list, Warm Regards, Elderwyn.com Admin admin@... http://www.elderwyn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 6, 2001 Report Share Posted March 6, 2001 Welcome, Jenn!! I'm a caregiver to 2 children with special needs and I am ill myself. I see it from both sides. Lee Elderwyn Administration <admin@...> wrote: JENN 2) Location Cincinnati, Ohio 3) Personal Info Well, Here we go.. .husnband 12/24/97 dxd Hodgkins Disease Stage IV-B, Nodular Sclerosing, treated with ABVD, relapsed within 3 months, had stem cell/bone marrow transplant and 4 weeks radiation. He is on HRT for men and was just diagnosed last week with Obstructive Sleep Apena and has a CPAP machine. I have suffered with chronic depression for almost 10 years now. 4) Interests I enjoy playing piano and french horn, my cats, my new dog, and taking care of my daughter Sharon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 6, 2001 Report Share Posted March 6, 2001 Hi Jenn, Welcome to the family!! You sure do sound like you have your hands full. There are a few others here who either are carers for or have Hodgkins so you are not alone here sweetie. Must be very hard. > I have suffered with chronic depression for almost 10 years now. Oh that one is tough too. My husband suffers from that also. Are you on medications? Please feel free to jump in anytime you need ok? Just vent away, no vent to big or too small!! Good to see another Libran!!! whoo hooo!! Welcome to the family! Love Aisha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 6, 2001 Report Share Posted March 6, 2001 Thank you for the welcome! Welcome to the family!! You sure do sound like you have your hands full. There are a few others here who either are carers for or have Hodgkins so you are not alone here sweetie. Must be very hard. It certainly hasnt been an easy road. I did recognize & Don. Which she better have gotten her butt to the ER. Hands full is realy a relative term! I really just take things as they come and get thru one day at a time. I mean, what else can we do? I cherish each and every day and try my best not to think about tomorrow. Oh that one is tough too. My husband suffers from that also. Are you on medications? I have been on and off all KINDS of medications. Paxil, Prozac, Effexor and I am on Zoloft now. I have another message I wrote and if it is OK I thought I would just attach it here for a little background information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself. I just joined the list today. My name is Jenn. I am 23 and live in Cincinnati Ohio. I found the list and thought maybe I might find some "commoners" to my situation. The past 5 years of my life have been absolute hell. I have been in and out of depression episodes. For a little background let me explain a bit. My depression has really been a part of my life since I was 15. Just not very severe. It started just after I started getting really severe migraines. I had test upon test to figure out what was causing the migraines, but nothing came out. So... they just labeled them as part of puberty and stress. I lost a lot of hope back then because I just felt like I never had a grasp on myself, or being in control of my self. Well, finally felt better when I found a boyfriend, my grades skyrocketed, my self-esteem grew with leaps and bounds, and life was good. Then I got pregnant. I placed our daughter in an adoption. It is completely open. I had professional counseling thoughout that whole process. That helped, and after I placed my daughter I was put on Paxil. It helped, but my mom made them stop giving it to me. So... I was back to being untreated. Just kind of went with the flow of life, not really working very hard, or living past today. I kept myself very busy to kind of hide from the lack of control I had within myself. I worked 40 hours a week, went to high school, was in band, drill team... you name it, I did it. I graduated with honors and went away to school. The depression once again got very severe when I went away. I was all alone. I clung to one thing from back home and that was my "boyfriend" I say that in quotes cos he really wasnt. I wasnt faithful to him and I didnt love him. BUt he was a comfort thing I guess. Well, my grades in college went from a 3.8 down to like a 2.5 and I lost my scholarships. I came home for a month and then got pregnant again from my "boyfriend". I was back in the depression swing as my mom got very abusive to me once she found out I was pregnant again. Mike and I decided to go ahead and get married and move in together. Well, we got engaged and I moved 200 miles away from my mother and all of our family. Things honestly got better, and I was truly happy. Then it went downhill. Mike got sick in November. I mean REALLY sick. In December he was diagnosed with Stage IV-B Hodgkins Disease. I was 7 months pregnant. He immediately started chemotherapy. I also immediately got sick. I had a mini-stroke three days after his diagnosis. I went into preterm labor and spent 3-4 days in the hospital. I dont remember how many anymore. The put me on medication to prevent contractions, a blood thinner of some nature, and pain killers for my migraines which were back, and put me on bedrest. Bedrest... what a JOKE! I was the sole caregiver for a man severely ill with cancer!! I wasnt able to really be on bedrest, but was very careful and took it as easy as I could. Well, in February, 6 weeks into the 8 months of chemo Mike was scheduled for, our daugther Sharon was born. Of course she was born early, but only a week. So all was well with everyone. Delivery went smoothly and no complications. My first pregnancy had a LOT of complications including toxemia and an emergency C-Section, so they were watching me like a hawk. But anyway... Sharon was born on a Monday, We came home on Wednesday, and Mike had chemo on Thursday. And... it was hell. Having to care for a newborn, Mike and the depression I was in PLUS the post pardum depression... I was a wreck. It was like I stopped feeling for awhile and just was on auto-pilot. Acted how I thought i should act, and hid all the feelings that I had. Well, when Mike was declared in remission... all that came out and I went into a really bad depression again. I didnt get out of bed, didnt move, just put the baby in the playpen and watched her. I didnt go out, I didnt do anything that expended more energy than I had to. And I went back on medication. Prozac this time. That lasted for awhile, until I got frusrtated and stopped taking it. Then Mike was found to have relapsed. The cancer came back. I went BACK on to auto-pilot and just did what I had to do. I found some online support and it helped a lot. He had a bone marrow transplant. It worked and he was found in remission after the 7 months of treatment. A few months after that... you guessed it.. back into depression. This time I was on Effexor and migraine medicine as my migraines came back. I was on that for about 8 months and then I felt better and the doctor took me off of it. I started working, and I went into counseling. Mike followed me into counseling. That brings us up to the spring of 2000. I got severely ill the summer of 2000. They thought it was my gall bladder, and were planning surgery, but all the tests came back normal. I was off and on medication, had a million tests done, the only things that came back odd was that my spleen was enlarged and one of my kidneys wasnt functioning right. Well, the put me on some prilosec to maybe fix the stomach problem and gave me some anti-biotics for my kidney. They never found out what was causing the severe pain I was having. Then the migraines came back, but this time much worse than I had had previously. They would cause a lot of weakness and confusion and vertigo. I actualyl collapsed a few times at work due to the combination of that and the stomach problems. Well, the never found anything out about it... until I went back to my primary doc. He put me on Zoloft. And wouldnt you know it... I suddently felt better. I guess the dizziness and collapsing can be a sign of severe depression, as I was very severely depressed. I was put into therapy immediately and my stomach problems went away as well. This was resolved in October of 2000. And that is where I am now. Mike is 2 years post-transplant and 21 months in remission. Sharon just had her 3rd birthday. And I am back in school and doing well. I feel more like myself I think... and am trying to regain some hope and control over my life. I am here I guess to get some help from people who are dealing with something similar and can help regain that control over themselves. I feel like there just isnt any to be had. Im still just so overwhelmed by life in general... its hard to get a grasp. So, that is me.... Oh. I LOVE to write! This is just the reader's digest condensed version. If you would like to read more... http://www.angelfire.com/oh/Jenns1Page I hope someone read all this... Jenn (23) Cincinnati Ohio bmom to e (5) mommy to Sharon (2) wife to Mike (27) -- dxd 12/24/97 HD IV-B NS, 7 cycles ABVD, remission 8/98, relapse 11/98, 12/98 salvage/high dose chemo regimen of ARA-C, BCNU, cisplatin, cytoxin, VP-16, BMT 3/99, remission 6/99, 4 weeks radiation 9/99, dxd OSA (obstructive sleep apena) 2/01 CPAP in use. Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 6, 2001 Report Share Posted March 6, 2001 Jenn, Hey, don't I know you from somewhere??? It's ...as in and Don??? This is the best list out there, and you'll find that out very quickly. WELCOME JENN!!! ~ * ~ Welcome Jenn ~ * ~ JENN 2) Location Cincinnati, Ohio 3) Personal Info Well, Here we go.. .husnband 12/24/97 dxd Hodgkins Disease Stage IV-B, Nodular Sclerosing, treated with ABVD, relapsed within 3 months, had stem cell/bone marrow transplant and 4 weeks radiation. He is on HRT for men and was just diagnosed last week with Obstructive Sleep Apena and has a CPAP machine. I have suffered with chronic depression for almost 10 years now. 4) Interests I enjoy playing piano and french horn, my cats, my new dog, and taking care of my daughter Sharon. 5) Email YES Jenn Friedhoff <bmomjenn@...> 6) ICQ / AOL / MSN 154391254/Peppymintpatty 7) Webpage http://www.angelfire.com/oh/Jenns1Page 8) Birthday 10/10/1977 Libra On Behalf of the Being Sick Community welcome to the list, Warm Regards, Elderwyn.com Admin admin@... http://www.elderwyn.com ~~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~~ The Being Sick CommunityHelp with Merger/files/Visual problems with colors?Click the link below and select the modify link to your right. Then select the **Send Plain Text Email** option. This will stop you receiving emails with colored or enlarged fonts./joinMembers Lounge:-Photo Album, memorial page, members profiles, birthdays, locations, medical resources, counselling via email and a whole bunch of free things.http://www.elderwyn.com/members Message Archives and Digest Attachment Pictures:-/messagesChat:- Scheduled Daily Chats at # on IRC DALnet./files/chat.htmBookmarks:-Add a website URL you have found useful./linksPersonal Complaints or problems:-Please contact a moderator either via email <-owner > or visit:- /files/Moderators.htmSubscription Details:-1) Individual email - means that every email sent to the list you receive.2) Daily Digest - sends you 25 messages in one single email for you to browse. This is an excellent option if you receive alot of email.3) Web only/No mail - means that you can pop into eGroups at your convenience and receive no email.To modify your subscription settings, subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit /join~~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~~“Hold on to what is good, even if it's a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do even, if it's a long way from here. Hold on to your life, even if it's easier to let go." - Pueblo Prayer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 7, 2001 Report Share Posted March 7, 2001 Jenn I am so sorry to hear all that you have gone through but am happy that you are back on the right track. It is so hard to be sick yourself and then having to deal with loved ones being sick. As a teenager I suffered depression that was treated with Vitamins. As long as I was on the prescribed vitamins I was fine. I hope all stays on the course that you are on right now you deserve it. Hugs to all Jan SclerodermaHope PartnersinCaring mgus http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/3892/index.html ICQ # 24934693 AIM: FargJan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 10, 2001 Report Share Posted March 10, 2001 Hi Jenn! Welcome to the group! This is really a great bunch of people, very loving and supportive. I'm so glad you've found us! *hugs* Elderwyn Administration wrote: JENN2) Location Cincinnati, Ohio 3) Personal Info Well, Here we go.. .husnband 12/24/97 dxd Hodgkins Disease Stage IV-B, Nodular Sclerosing, treated with ABVD, relapsed within 3 months, had stem cell/bone marrow transplant and 4 weeks radiation. He is on HRT for men and was just diagnosed last week with Obstructive Sleep Apena and has a CPAP machine. I have suffered with chronic depression for almost 10 years now. 4) Interests I enjoy playing piano and french horn, my cats, my new dog, and taking care of my daughter Sharon. 5) Email YES Jenn Friedhoff <bmomjenn@...> 6) ICQ / AOL / MSN 154391254/Peppymintpatty 7) Webpage http://www.angelfire.com/oh/Jenns1Page 8) Birthday 10/10/1977 Libra On Behalf of the Being Sick Community welcome to the list, Warm Regards, Elderwyn.com Admin admin@... http://www.elderwyn.com ~~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~~ The Being Sick Community Help with Merger /files/ Visual problems with colors? Click the link below and select the modify link to your right. Then select the **Send Plain Text Email** option. This will stop you receiving emails with colored or enlarged fonts. /join Members Lounge:- Photo Album, memorial page, members profiles, birthdays, locations, medical resources, counselling via email and a whole bunch of free things. http://www.elderwyn.com/members Message Archives and Digest Attachment Pictures:- /messages Chat:- Scheduled Daily Chats at # on IRC DALnet. /files/chat.htm Bookmarks:- Add a website URL you have found useful. /links Personal Complaints or problems:- Please contact a moderator either via email <-owner > or visit:- /files/Moderators.htm Subscription Details:- 1) Individual email - means that every email sent to the list you receive. 2) Daily Digest - sends you 25 messages in one single email for you to browse. This is an excellent option if you receive alot of email. 3) Web only/No mail - means that you can pop into eGroups at your convenience and receive no email. To modify your subscription settings, subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit /join ~~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~~ “Hold on to what is good, even if it's a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do even, if it's a long way from here. Hold on to your life, even if it's easier to let go." - Pueblo Prayer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2001 Report Share Posted March 15, 2001 Welcome Jenn! You are going to love us! #4 (chelle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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