Thank you for all of your love and support through this incredibly difficult time. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing people.
In February of 2015 I was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma. After 6 months of ABVD chemo I was declared cancer free. Unfortunately, a few months into 2017, I started having symptoms again and in April I found out that I relapsed. With Hodgkin’s having as low as a 10% relapse rate, it almost felt unbelievable.
This time around, treatment is going to be different. It will involve very aggressive chemo and a stem cell transplant. I will start with 2-3 rounds of chemo which will take place over the course of 6-9 weeks. I will then have my stem cells removed and move on to the second part of treatment. During this time I will be hospitalized at UCSF for 3 weeks receiving aggressive chemo daily. This chemo will essentially be killing my bone marrow to ensure that this cancer never comes back again. The final step will be finishing my transplant by having my stem cells put back in me. Once my stem cells start working again, which takes about 12 days, I will be able to go home and start recovering.
If all goes according to plan, all of this treatment will take place over the course of 3 months followed by a 6 to 12 month recovery. After having a biopsy procedure, getting a port put back in, and giving myself shots for 12 days followed by an egg retrieval procedure to freeze my eggs, I will finally be starting chemo on May 30th.
The good news is my oncologist said this is still VERY CURABLE! It is without a doubt going to be the most difficult year of my life, but I also have no doubt that I will get through it. I will do my best to keep posting updates throughout this process.
Thank you all for reminding me that no one fights alone.
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