Inspirational Stories

I was working out at the gym, and I noticed a tiny little lump in my groin area. I went to the doctor, and they said, “Don’t worry about it, let me know if it gets bigger.” Well in two months, it was five times the size. I was 62 at the time and got a biopsy. It was then I received a call from an “unknown” that I had lymphoma. I knew I had it, and the phone call confirmed what I was feeling. It was that sense of dread that you have, like when I lost a job a while back. I surprised my insurance company when I got a second opinion. Apparently, no one does that even when the insurance company will pay for it.

Once mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) was confirmed by both doctors, I immediately got in with an oncologist, and they put in a port. We did spinal taps and biopsies to confirm it was in my system. The doctor told me that lymphoma had a 5% mortality rate. This means that the chances were good, right? I am not going to die. I had a stem cell transplant after three and a half weeks in the hospital with 40 terrible days. It was a small period of time of about three years that was really bad. I came out of this a much better person, being much more complete. I found peace within my previous high anxiety for decades. You can't sit in a hospital and feed on your own thoughts. I don't care who you are. It's an echo chamber of high anxiety in your mind every day. I realized all I have to do is deal with this. Nothing else is that important. All I had to do was stay positive and get better. I brought a speaker into the hospital room to play music for my care team to bring up spirits. I also brought in my yoga mat and started doing push-ups every single day. Then when I was stronger, I got a Life Cycle. I wanted to stay positive and have a healthy well-being throughout the process. After this experience, I feel more comprehensively complete.

Everybody was supporting me from my wife and two kids. I had to stay positive and show them how you can deal with something like a blood cancer diagnosis.