Michael Lilien

Welcome to my story.  Over the summer while training for a marathon, I noticed that I had a lump in my groin.  After doing a little Google M.D.'ing, I thought it was a hernia and forgot about it and kept running.   At the end of the summer, it started hurting in that spot when I was just walking around the house.  That was when I made an appointment to see my doctor at the VA hospital in town (Columbia, MO).  Fast forward to the first week of October when I finally had my appointment.  The doctor felt it for one second and immediately told me it wasn't a hernia, it was a large lymph node, and we needed to investigate it.  After an ultrasound, which led to a CAT scan, which led to a PET Scan and surgical removal of the lymph node and subsequent biopsy, we found out I had stage 3 follicular lymphoma.  This came as quite a surprise because of up until that time I had felt pretty great.  The cancer was not presenting itself other than the giant lymph node.  Follicular lymphoma is the kind of cancer you want to get if you are going to get any cancer at all.  It is slow-moving and does not make you feel as bad as a lot of other types of cancer.  I will be going through six sessions of chemotherapy over the next 15 weeks followed by 2 to 3-year regiment of oral medication.  My oncologist is very confident that we can not only put my cancer into remission but also keep it away for a long time.  Unfortunately, this will be something that will hang over my head for the rest of my life, but you know what it doesn't matter.  With the love of God and all the people I have surrounding me, including you, I can take on any challenge cancer throws at me and send it right back in spades.  Thanks for all your love and support.  I can not wait to be back to my good old self again when we can all sit back and laugh about how bad I beat this thing.  God Bless!

Michael