Search Results

GiGi

When I was diagnosed in 2002 I was in such a fog, all that I can really remember is the doctor saying "You have..." I had acute myeloid leukemia and given 6 weeks to live. I just felt that could not be the end for me.

I went through the chemo, hospital stays all while trying to raise 4 small children and I made it through it all. Thank goodness, right? Fast forward to 2017 the day after my 48th birthday. I began to feel weak and extremely fatigued, without trying to "self- diagnose" myself, this feeling was all too familiar.

Jan

We were living the American dream. I married my college sweetheart Michael, and we celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary last fall. We have a wonderful son, who is engaged to a fabulous young woman, and they have launched their life together in Indianapolis.

Amanda

In 2015 at the age of 21, I went to my local ER three times for lower back pain and was sent home every time. After a wonderful Disney trip, I went to my local ER with severe back and stomach pain. After several tests, the doctors told me it looked like I had large tumors in both lungs. Eventually, I had a biopsy which confirmed my worse fear — I had stage 4 large B cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. My whole world turned upside-down.

Quade

Quade “Q” Marks is a 14-year-old freshman at East High School in Denver, Colorado.  He loves to play lacrosse, ski, snowboard and aspires to be a trauma surgeon. He is also a blood cancer survivor.

Aleta

I was diagnosed on August 13, 2013 with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was totally out of the blue. I had been married for just a year at the time of my diagnosis and sadly my husband couldn't handle a wife with cancer and we divorced.

Doug

On July 16, 2014 I had just finished eating out at our local diner. When standing at the register to pay, my defibrillator fired and an ambulance was called. Within two hours of arriving at the emergency room I found out I had leukemia. I had had no symptoms other than the lab work that showed the disease. I was in disbelief when I heard the words "very aggressive form of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)." By the next afternoon I was started on a heavy regiment of arsenic and ATRA chemotherapy treatment.

Elsie

In November 2013, after experiencing several severe nose bleeds, I was diagnosed with a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer called Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia. It was in stage IV and I started chemotherapy treatments immediately.

Kevin

My brest friend, Kevin McDowell has dreamed of going to the Olympics for triathlon since he was 13 years old. Shortly after winning bronze at the ITU Junior World Championships and three days after his first professional race in 2011, Kevin was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Johanna

I am a teacher from Texas. My journey to Team and Training wasn’t immediate. I moved to Texas from Louisiana. When I moved to Texas, I decided to start running to meet people and to help with my homesickness.

Kasey

In August of 2020, I noticed a baseball size lump on my neck. I instantly freaked out and went to my nearest urgent care center. There they told me it was most likely a cyst or inflammation of some sort. I was told to put a hot compress on it and take an inflammatory medication. It wasn’t until December of 2020 that I went to get it looked at again as it has not gone away. It never caused me pain or discomfort but with it not going away I was concerned.

Katie

Twenty years ago I did two things that shaped my life.

Lauren

In the fall of 2022, my cousin lost her battle with leukemia. She was the most lovely (a word that makes me think of her) and kind person, and at the memorial service, Kate's sister said Kate had said, "There is nothing better than to be young and to run." This sentiment stuck with me for a long time as I am also a runner, and I started thinking about how I could honor her in my own way. The family had directed those who wished to donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), so I researched and discovered Team In Training (TNT).

Georgia

On August 18, 2021, after months of complaining about severe knee pain, I was diagnosed with mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL). I was 16 at the time of my diagnosis and was supposed to be starting my junior year of high school that same day. (It was the first time everyone went back to school since COVID). The diagnosis was unexpected, and I started treatment right away at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Since COVID was still around, I was unable to see anybody other than my parents. It was a very scary, lonely time.

Relapsed and Refractory

Some patients still have leukemia cells in their bone marrow after hairy cell leukemia treatment. This is called refractory leukemia. Some patients have a return of leukemia cells in the marrow and a decrease in normal blood cells after remission. This is called a relapse.

Drug therapy that can be used to treat relapsed or refractory HCL includes:

MDS Subtypes

There are several kinds (subtypes) of MDS. The subtype is determined from the results of the blood and bone marrow tests.

The current WHO classification guidelines identify six subtypes.The current WHO classification guidelines, which were updated in 2022, groups MDS based on genetic abnormalities and morphologically defined features (the appearance and number of the cells under a microscope).

The subtypes are determined by the following:

Signs and Symptoms

Polycythemia vera (PV) develops slowly, and it may not cause symptoms for many years. The condition is often diagnosed during a routine blood test before severe symptoms occur. 

Symptoms may include:

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a drug therapy that stimulates the immune system. Interferon, a type of immunotherapy, is a substance made naturally by the immune system, but it can also be made in the laboratory. Interferon reduces the growth and division of cancer cells.

Julian

I was a 10-year-old kid when I was diagnosed with leukemia. I was a happy, energetic kid who loved being outside and was a straight-A student. However, my whole childhood was put on hold indefinitely once I had cancer. Rather than having sleepovers at my friend’s houses, I was sleeping over at the hospital. It was hard to lose my energy, smile, confidence, and hair as treatment took over my life. It was really hard to understand as I was just a kid getting injections, procedures, chemotherapy, and surgery without truly understanding why.

Jimmy

My journey with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) began in the summer of 2020. My 17-year-old, two-sport athlete son Jimmy came to me complaining that he had pulled a muscle in his neck lifting weights for football and baseball. However, after many doctors’ appointments and tests, on June 12, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, I received a call that his biopsy was indeed cancer, stage 3 advanced Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). I now had to tell my 17-year-old son that his worst fear was now a reality.

Elisa

I was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in April 2022 at 27 years old. After months of debilitating symptoms and a week-long hospital stay, I finally had an answer as to what was going on with my body. I was relieved to have an answer, but "cancer" was the last thing I expected. Ironically, after my diagnosis and first chemotherapy infusion, I felt better than I had in months. I didn't feel like I had cancer; the only reminders were a few enlarged lymph nodes and the mediport protruding from the right side of my chest. 

Rylie

My name is Rylie York, I am 20 years old and I'm currently a sophomore at Baylor University. I'm originally from Round Rock, Texas and I am a patient at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 18 in the middle of my senior year of high school. I have relapsed twice since then and completed my bone marrow transplant this past August and September.

Laraine

November 21st is Family Volunteer Day.  The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) encourages you to volunteer as a family today. Whatever you choose to do, do it together. Some ideas include: take a few minutes to call a friend, neighbor or colleague; cook a meal together and drop it at the doorstep of someone in need; rake a neighbor’s yard or put a book in a neighborhood lending library.

To honor this day, we are sharing the story about a family faced with a cancer diagnosis, who banded together when the future seemed so unclear.

Will

I am a cancer mom. I WAS a cancer mom. My youngest son, Will, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at age 19 in April of 2019. He, his dad, and I were beyond shocked when we heard the news that the swollen lymph nodes that came up out of the blue one March morning were indeed HL. We didn't really know anybody personally that had it. We didn't know what exactly all the words meant at that moment in time, but we knew it wasn't what we had planned for our youngest son.

Amy

It was July 2014, I got up and went for a quick morning jog before work. It’s Iowa, it was hot and humid, but I was unusually winded after that jog. I figured it was due to being humid outside and finished getting ready to go to work (I was a registered nurse at a physician’s clinic doing triage). During the day, I continued to feel a little winded and noticed I had a cramp in my calf. The nurse in me said to ignore it, that I was overreacting, but I decided to call my physician. She directed me to my local ER for fear of a blood clot.

Caregiving During Treatment

During and after cancer treatment, your loved one may find life at home becomes increasingly challenging. If  your loved one is experiencing mobility issues, peripheral neuropathy, pain or weakness after treatment, the following changes to the home may make life easier and safer for your loved one: