An Introduction!

Well, no one wants to be diagnosed with cancer 2 weeks after their wedding (what a way to end a honeymoon), but here we are. While the news was terribly upsetting, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma which is very treatable. Unlike other cancers, there aren't any tumors with Hodgkin's, you get little infected nodules and lymph nodes. Since the cancer was in stage 4 when we found it I am on a pretty aggressive treatment plan, which has put me out of commission for a lot of things. The worst of which is the food restrictions!! Just when I thought my wedding diet was over with! But if I have to go 6 months without caffene, chocolate, or aged cheese to be healthy then that's what I'm going to do!

If you don't know the whole story, I've had a chronic cough since March of 2010. It's been diagnosed as everything from a sinus infection, to asthma, to acid reflux, to stress, and back to a sinus infection. After countless doctors apointments and exams, my ENT, Dr. Shimoura found lymph nodes on my neck were extremely swollen, and ordered a CT Scan of them, as well as my sinuses (we were gearing up for the possibility of sinus surgery). He decided to throw in a CT Scan of my chest while I was getting everything done anyway.

Boy I'm glad he did, because they found lumps in my chest. Everything after that was a whirlwind. Dr Shimoura got me in to see an Oncologist he knew that day. We were in his office and he said "he'll see you in 20 minutes, go!" And before there was time to think about it, I had a lymph node removed, and was given my diagnoses.

The lymph node surgery was barely healed when I had my port installed. For those who don't know, a port is something they give to some chemo patients when they have to receive treatment often. It connects right to a vein and stays under my skin, below my collar bone so I don't have to put my veins under the stress of repeated needle usage.

Well, the day after my port was installed I had my first day of chemo. All of this was terrifying, but I had my parents and my husband by my side. 

The chemo hasn't been terrible so far. It has caused a huge amount of fatigue, and I usually end up napping after treatment. I've only had one bout of nausea (let's hope it's the last), and have been doing pretty well. This week was suppposed to be pretty rough, because it's such a system shock, and I'm feeling confident about going through this.

The treatment I'm receiving has been fantastic. Everyone at my oncologist's office is friendly and super helpful, and they already know who I am, which is good because we're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the future.