Inspirational Stories

I’m 37 years old, and I was recently diagnosed with stage 4 high-grade diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Life was going well. I got promoted at my job and was doing great when all of a sudden, my life changed forever. It started with severe leg and back pain. I went to the hospital and had some basic tests done, and they sent me home. Two days later, I was back in the hospital because the pain was so intense I could barely get out of bed or walk without assistance. I had further testing done including a bone marrow biopsy, CT scan, and a scope where they found tumors on my liver, kidneys, pancreas, in my stomach, and my bone marrow was 98% involved. I started chemotherapy immediately. I was told by my oncologist that if I hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t have made it another 2 months. Imagine a father of two daughters and two stepsons. I've had a lot of other issues with one of my kidneys with a blockage and pressure on it from my swollen lymph nodes. I've had two stent exchanges, then I was hit with a UTI. I'm going on my fourth treatment now. I'm on one of the strongest chemo treatments, and the cancer is responding well to it. I’m hoping everything comes back good on the PET scan, and I will have one more treatment, then put on maintenance treatments.