So, here we are....
Alexandria has Classic Hodgkin's Lymphoma, nodular sclerosing type, stage 2B.  She's scheduled to have 4 rounds of chemotherapy.  We have finished her first 2 rounds up here at Mayo.  We are scheduled for re-staging to see how the cancer has responded this next week.
I am terrified.  This is so beyond what I ever thought my child would face.  She has been so strong throughout all of this.  When her hair was falling out in clumps (something very upsetting for anyone, let alone a 14 year old girl getting ready to start high school), she shaved her head LIVE ON INSTAGRAM!  She did this even though she had a tube inserted in her nose that was supplying her nutrition because she had lost so much weight.
I've watched her embrace the younger children with cancer and other diagnoses while in the hospital and become a mentor to try to help them not to be afraid of their port through which they will get medication delivered into their chest.
I've watched her "Rock The Bald"
I've watched kids stare at her and ask her questions about why she doesn't have hair or why she's in a wheelchair or why she has a tube in her nose.  She handles it with such poise and grace and turns it into a teaching moment-never feeling embarrassed-always welcoming.  My, oh my, I am Proud of my daughter.
She now says she wants to be an Oncologist when she gets older-but she says she doesn't want to work at Mayo-She wants to work in Illinois because she wants to be able to diagnose people.  She doesn't want another child to go through what she has gone through to get a diagnosis.  I remember May 7th, the night BEFORE we went to the ER the 2nd time, Alex sent me a text with a link to a lymphoma site-she said that she believed that she had lymphoma--she had every symptom except for one.  I, having medical knowledge, was fearful of the same thing, but I couldn't tell that to her-I just tried to reassure her that we would follow up with the "doctor" and that I did not want her googling symptoms or possible causes.  She was adamant that she thought that she had lymphoma...Multiple, multiple doctor's visits to multiple doctors in Illinois without an answer--come to find out that she was ACTUALLY RIGHT ALL ALONG!  She did have Lymphoma.  It took us traveling up to Minnesota in order for her to be diagnosed! 
I feel sorry for those people who don't have medical knowledge or parents that don't question doctors or parents who just accept that what the doctor says as Gospel just because they have the title of Doctor.  You have to keep looking for answers if you are not finding them.  Seek 2nd or 3rd or 4th or more opinions until you get help.  Even though we did not waste any time in getting into Mayo because I had been trying to get in even though we were seeing other doctors, my daughter is stage 2B/4.  Had I listened to the information that I had been given, I don't know what kind of position Alexandria would be in-thank God for perseverance!