My first thread, please be gentle with me GAF, I'm just so excited.
So, I'd posted about it before, for the last year and a half, I've been fighting refractory Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was diagnosed in May of 2016, just before my 22nd birthday, I'd noticed a lump in my neck I knew to be a lymph node, and went into my doctor, totally expecting to be sent home and told to get some rest. He ordered an emergency CT scan, and I was admitted to hospital that afternoon. Turns out my windpipe was less than half an inch wide and the blood flow to my brain was being cut off (I felt completely fine, other than a constant itchiness).
I was Stage 3BX, so, I had cancer both above and below my diaphragm, and it was bulky, I remember one legion was 4 inches across, right around my heart and lungs. It's an unfavourable diagnosis, but, Hodgkin's is amazingly treatable, and at 2 months into chemo when they gave me another scan, it showed no cancer, at the time. I finished the last 4 months of chemo, and busied myself getting back into life. I moved back out on my own, re-enrolled into university, went on holiday. In December I was still clear. When university started in early February though, I felt that lump in my neck and I knew.
It seemed like the chemo had just made it mad. Not only was it crushing my lungs and heart again, but, it had found its way into my bones, with lesions on my ribs and hips. Because it had been only 3 months, this meant my disease was not the easily killed version 80-90% of people get. Mine was refractory, notoriously hard to kill, with survival rates closer to the 30%s. So the next treatment would be harsh, an autologous stem cell transplant, pretty much a self bone marrow transplant.
After another two months of chemo, which reduced my disease, they harvested stem cells forced out of my bones from the medication I took, and then I had to travel to another hospital, where they would give me more chemotherapy to destroy my bone marrow, and then give my stem cells back so they could rebuild. I spent a month in hospital with no bone marrow, relying on blood transfusions and IV food (the chemo had destroyed the linings of my intestines so I couldn't eat) until I was 'well'.
2 months into my recovery, they scanned again. Nothing lit up, but the big lesions in my chest and neck hadn't reduced in size. Instead of chemo this time, they sent me for radiotherapy and every day for a month, they zapped my chest and neck to destroy whatever was left. After that finished, we waited. 2 months after that, they would scan again, and I would know if I had won.
I got those scan results back today, and they showed no cancer, and lesions that were left are gone. Sure, in the coming months and years I'll need to be vigilant, this fucker is known to be tough. But so am I. And for now... I've won
So, I'd posted about it before, for the last year and a half, I've been fighting refractory Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was diagnosed in May of 2016, just before my 22nd birthday, I'd noticed a lump in my neck I knew to be a lymph node, and went into my doctor, totally expecting to be sent home and told to get some rest. He ordered an emergency CT scan, and I was admitted to hospital that afternoon. Turns out my windpipe was less than half an inch wide and the blood flow to my brain was being cut off (I felt completely fine, other than a constant itchiness).
I was Stage 3BX, so, I had cancer both above and below my diaphragm, and it was bulky, I remember one legion was 4 inches across, right around my heart and lungs. It's an unfavourable diagnosis, but, Hodgkin's is amazingly treatable, and at 2 months into chemo when they gave me another scan, it showed no cancer, at the time. I finished the last 4 months of chemo, and busied myself getting back into life. I moved back out on my own, re-enrolled into university, went on holiday. In December I was still clear. When university started in early February though, I felt that lump in my neck and I knew.
It seemed like the chemo had just made it mad. Not only was it crushing my lungs and heart again, but, it had found its way into my bones, with lesions on my ribs and hips. Because it had been only 3 months, this meant my disease was not the easily killed version 80-90% of people get. Mine was refractory, notoriously hard to kill, with survival rates closer to the 30%s. So the next treatment would be harsh, an autologous stem cell transplant, pretty much a self bone marrow transplant.
After another two months of chemo, which reduced my disease, they harvested stem cells forced out of my bones from the medication I took, and then I had to travel to another hospital, where they would give me more chemotherapy to destroy my bone marrow, and then give my stem cells back so they could rebuild. I spent a month in hospital with no bone marrow, relying on blood transfusions and IV food (the chemo had destroyed the linings of my intestines so I couldn't eat) until I was 'well'.
2 months into my recovery, they scanned again. Nothing lit up, but the big lesions in my chest and neck hadn't reduced in size. Instead of chemo this time, they sent me for radiotherapy and every day for a month, they zapped my chest and neck to destroy whatever was left. After that finished, we waited. 2 months after that, they would scan again, and I would know if I had won.
I got those scan results back today, and they showed no cancer, and lesions that were left are gone. Sure, in the coming months and years I'll need to be vigilant, this fucker is known to be tough. But so am I. And for now... I've won
