Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My cancer story

I was diagnosed with primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in December 2008. After months of vague symptoms, I developed a horrible dry cough. As part of investigating my cough, my doctor ordered a chest CT scan. The images showed a tumor under my breastbone that was over five inches wide.

After six months of chemotherapy, the last part of my cancer treatment was a decision to add radiation to my treatment plan. I wrote two posts about my radiation experience, one during treatment, and one after I was finished.

I hope my story is helpful to others. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me; my address is Email address

Throughout my battle with cancer, I have found a lot of support on the message board community at http://forums.lymphoma.com/. They have a "share your story" thread where I have posted a much more detailed description of my initial symptoms and how I was diagnosed.

Before I knew I had cancer, I wrote several posts where I talked about being tired all the time:


During treatment, I had several CT scans and one PET scan to track my progress:I also had some thoughts on residual scar tissue.


A couple of posts (although the subject is so important is should really have more than that) on how much the support of others has meant to me:
Posts about the technology used in my treatment:I also wrote one post about my prognosis.


The bulk of my posts on this topic has been discussions of my side effects:
I have been extremely lucky to have my insurance cover every cost associated with my care, after just one small snag. There are several active members of the lymphoma message boards who do not have insurance, and their situations are just heartbreaking. I hope that soon everyone will be entitled to the same level of care that I have received.

2 comments:

claire said...

I followed you throughout your battle with cancer. I haven't read recently, but just popped over to see if everything was still well. I am happy to see that you are healthy and enjoying life.
I love that you now have a sidebar called, "I had cancer" (past tense).
Congratulations! Made my day.

E said...

Thanks for this. I have the same subtype. Thedocs say it's rare notmuch researchout on it. So good to read about someone further down the line. E