Tom Cullinan

First post: Jul 10, 2018 Latest post: Nov 18, 2018

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

On the morning of our wedding, April 28, 2018, as Tom was shaving he felt a lump on his neck. He spent the next month seeing multiple specialists, having several scans and biopsies, and in early June Tom was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkins Lymphoma. In the weeks following, further tests have since revealed that he also has a small localized tumor that has tested positive for liver cancer.

The good news is that Hodgkins Lymphoma is one of the most curable cancers. Survival rate is over 90%, and with several cycles of aggressive chemotherapy, we have every reason to believe he can beat it.

The liver cancer is more complicated. Because Tom has already had a liver transplant (yes, it’s the new transplanted liver with the tumor...unbelievably rare!) a team of doctors is working on a plan to carefully remove or shrink the tumor. Liver cancer is pretty scary and definitely serious, but this was caught at an early stage so we have that in our favor.

Tom’s first chemotherapy for the Lymphoma is scheduled for Monday, July 2nd. The plan is to interrupt chemo in aproximately 5 weeks to do whatever procedure they determine necessary for the liver. Then once he has recovered from that, they will restart chemo for several months. I will do my best to update this site on behalf of us both as we continue this journey. 

This has been rough and we know it is only going to get worse before it gets better. We never expected to spend the first months of our marriage this way, but we are so thankful to have each other along with a huge support team of family and friends to lean on. We are scared, frustrated, sad, exhausted, and yet optimistic.

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