October 16, 2018 will mark 5 years from my final chemotherapy round treating Hodgkins Lymphoma. February 29, 2013 I was about 10 weeks pregnant with our daughter when I got the chest xray that showed the 7cm mediastinal mass. It was part of the work up from my family practice doc when I oh-by-the-way mentioned a couple of lymph nodes in my neck at my first prenatal visit. Less than two weeks later, my husband Micah, our son, and I were on a flight from Okinawa, Japan to Walter Reed Medical Center. There were so many unknowns. What kind of cancer was it? Would we be going back to Japan? I wasn’t showing yet, would I need my maternity clothes? Would I be able to keep the baby? After a whirlwind of tests and procedures- MRIs, VATS surgery to biopsy the mass, 2nd opinions, port placement- I started chemotherapy. I am grateful to have had six months of treatment which, while exhausting, were at least uneventful. The happy exception was the birth of a certain beautiful, full-term, healthy, firecracker of a daughter after the fourth round of chemo. I was helped through it all by an incredible support system- Micah, our families, friends, Navy colleagues, and the medical team. Dottie is still a firecracker and I am as healthy as ever- with just a few small physical scars and a strengthened appreciation for the important things in life. Just 50 years ago, my outcome would have been very different. Research into chemotherapy, radiation, and other therapies has transformed what was once a universally fatal, aggressive cancer into one that is often curable. Coming up on the official Remission milestone, I am running a half marathon on November 18 to celebrate still being around to feel the sore knees and aching muscles. I am asking for any donations, no matter how small, to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to give the gift of life to someone else. Thank you for all your love then and now.
