My chemotherapy treatment started in April of 2021. It was scheduled every two weeks on Thursday. If you’ve never been in an infusion room, it’s not comforting. During my first treatment, I had several people next to me; all of them were older, and all of them were laid back in their chair, asleep. Watching them gave me anxiety. It made me start to believe that sooner or later, I would look like them, and that I would be so sick that I wouldn’t be able to get up.

My first session, I opened my laptop and played a movie. I didn’t want to look at anyone so I could avoid thinking negatively about my condition. As time went on, it got easier. I realized that not everyone was as sick as the people were on that first day.

Time for My Scans

By the end of my fourth session, it was time for me to get a PET scan. This was done to see how the chemo treatment was working. It was another of those moments that you hope for the best; you hope that you have been cured and that it’s almost over even though you have eight chemo sessions to go.

Immediately on the day of the scans, my trial nurse visited me while in my fifth chemo treatment and told me that my scans came back and were fantastic. I went from stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma to barely having cancer at all. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Just over a month ago, things seemed so bleak then suddenly, it’s gone.

The Good News

Ammie and I weren’t together to receive the news since no one was allowed to be with me during treatments, but regardless, the news was an emotional one for both of us and for all my family and friends. The feeling of knowing that I was on my way to #kickingcancersass was a good one.

The following four months of treatment continued. I had to endure another seven treatments, and they got progressively worse. I experienced severe bone pain. It literally felt like pain inside my bones coming from my bone marrow, and not just from a few bones but from my legs, arms and back. There were days that between the pain and the fatigue, I couldn’t get out of bed. I was also overwhelmed with nausea and losing my ability to want to eat certain foods like bacon. (Crazy, right? Who doesn’t like bacon?)

It was a fantastic feeling once September 30th came. It was my last chemo treatment, and I was done. Cancer was gone, and I was relieved. We were ready to move on beyond cancer and begin the road to recovery.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

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