by Sophie Hoelscher Long, Texas Gulf Honored Hero
I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 24. Before I was diagnosed, I was living life like a normal 24-year-old enjoying the real world, moving up the corporate ladder at work, taking weekend road trips, wedding planning, and being a first time home owner.
As all this was going on, six weeks before my wedding, things suddenly changed. I was experiencing weight gain, swollen lymph nodes, itching, fatigue and being constantly out of breath. After some time, things didn't get better so I went to my general practitioner who at the time, misdiagnosed me with a form of bed bugs. Exhausted and out of options, I went to my dermatologist who immediately knew something wasn't right and ordered me to have blood work done. The next day, he called me and told me an appointment had been set for me to see an oncologist.
The next 24 hours were horrible. I was so restless, stressed out, worried and had questions racing through my mind. After seeing the oncologist things moved rather quickly. Within a week, I had a bone marrow biopsy, PET scan, and met with an ENT to schedule a lymph node biopsy.
On February 19, 2013 my world as I knew it forever changed. I went in for a quick and easy procedure of having a lymph node from my neck removed and during surgery, my airway collapsed on the operating room table. At that very moment I was put into a medically induced coma for the next six weeks.
That day they discovered a football size mass in my chest. Three days later, I was life flighted to the medical center, had a stint put in my airway, a trach put in my throat, hooked up to a ventilator and that night, started chemotherapy. When I woke up in late March, I had no idea what was going on besides thinking I was waking up in the recovery room from my lymph node biopsy. Within the next few days I became more coherent and learned piece by piece what the last six weeks had been like.
For me, I felt nothing and remembered nothing. But for those around me it was restless nights, worried until they made themselves sick, prayed until they were blue in the face, researching the internet until they felt their fingers wanting to fall off.
The next six months consisted of making the tough decision to shave my head, postponing our wedding, eight more rounds of chemotherapy, learning how to walk, talk, write and eat again, catching every possible hospital virus out there, and dealing with the corneal abrasion of my eye and the complications that followed.
It was the worst eight months and 13 days of my life. I was so sick! I was miserable. I kept wanting this all to be a nightmare and I would suddenly wake up. But it wasn't. It was real. I wasn't going to let cancer win this battle. I had the amazing support of family, friends, my husband, our work family, our community and even complete strangers. I had prayers and support coming my way from all over the world.
On August 29, I was in my hospital, when my miracle man- my oncologist, walked in and told me I won. I won my battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and was now considered CANCER FREE! Even though I won this battle, I was still dealing with the aftermaths and my journey wasn't quite over. I still had to start and complete 17 rounds of radiation therapy which I completed on October 29.
Since that day, I have gained most of my strength back, was able to get married on January 11, returned back to work, and waking up each morning thanking God for the second chance at life I was given.
I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in Light the Night for the first time in 2013. Although I was unable to walk at the time because I was still in treatment, I was pushed in my wheelchair alongside 65 of my teammates. My team and I were able to raise over $6,000.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has given me hope. They've given hope to other patients, families, survivors, or those who battled til the end. To know that all the donations and participants in the walks are focused on one goal, the goal to raise funds for continued research for blood cancers and offer support and services for patients and their families.
Help me find cures TODAY. Not someday, but TODAY.
Thank you for creating more survivors like me.
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