THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504070180
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Mr. Roberts' Neighborgood
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Penny Skittlethorpe prays that her heart remains stable, that her Hodgkin's disease remains in remission and that her life returns to normal. But she isn't one to just sit around and wait.
The 18-year-old resident of Cypress Chapel Road in Suffolk is attending Old Dominion University in Norfolk, concentrating on marketing and fashion merchandising. ``I'm good in math, and I love clothes,'' she said. She's also seeking a night or weekend job at a clothing store.
School is top priority, though, and the Sunshine Foundation recently helped with a home computer and printer. The organization fulfills some dreams of children who are chronically ill or terminally ill.
The alternative to her own computer was getting on the school's waiting list, sometimes even driving to school on Sundays.
Penny goes to the Medical College of Virginia for checkups, and the news is good. Her Hodgkin's disease has been in remission since January 1994. Penny also has cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease. ``And my heart is in stable condition,'' she said.
She knows the Hodgkin's ``could happen again,'' and she is cautious about her heart.
``I don't know if it will get back to normal,'' but ``I take a lot of medication, and I walk a lot.''
Worst, she said, were side effects of the cancer treatment. She lost hair and at one point, because of the drugs, couldn't walk or move her leg muscles.
With the radiation, she said, she kept a sore throat and couldn't eat for a while. ``Before I got sick, I weighed 240 pounds,'' she said. ``I went down to 160.''
Her problems began in 1992. A biopsy showed Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer characterized by progressive enlargement of lymph nodes and the spleen.
But at first, the possible diagnoses had included AIDS.
``I was so relieved it wasn't AIDS, the cancer diagnosis didn't really hit me,'' she said.
``They pulled a goose egg-sized tumor from ny neck. Then, there were 17 others, all in the neck. They shrunk, thanks to the radiation and chemotherapy.''
A lot of us develop the ``if-it's-not-one-thing-it's-another'' attitude. But when Penny found out about her cancer and heart problems, she also learned about endurance.
For now, ``I hang out with friends a lot,'' Penny said. ``I didn't get to do that when I was sick.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Penny Skittlethorpe, who is in remission from Hodgkin's disease,
takes a break from the computer - a gift from the Sunshine
Foundation.
by CNB