Inspirational Stories

June 18th, 2021. A day that I would never expect to happen never in a million years. I was 17 years old living my life like any other teenage girl would.

Let me rewind back a few months to February 14th, 2021, yes Valentine’s Day. I was so sick that morning and with COVID-19 still running at its highest I decided to test myself. The test came back positive. I was so sick, the sickest I had ever been and as my quarantine was coming to an end I still felt as if I was still so sick with COVID. I tested myself again and again but every time the test came back negative.

I decided that I just needed to forget about it and go back to my normal everyday life. Going to school, playing soccer every day, and hanging out with my friends. That is when a nasty cough came along, I went to the doctors and they told me it was bronchitis. I was prescribed prednisone and I felt so much better after a week of being on the steroid  Fast forward another week and that is when I found a lump on the right side of my neck, I went to the doctor's office once again and they told me it was a swollen lymph node from COVID and that it was nothing to worry about. As the weeks went on I noticed the lump getting larger and that is when I thought enough was enough. At that point, my doctor made a referral to an ear, nose, and throat specialist.

June 17th, 2021, I had an appointment to see the specialist. She feels around and thinks it's nothing to worry about but still wants an ultrasound of the lump. That very next morning June 18th, 2021, I was called back to the ear, nose, and throat doctor for additional imaging the X-ray showed a mass in my chest. My mom got the call that I needed to go up to Boston Children's Hospital immediately. After extensive blood work, imaging, and surgeries. I was diagnosed with stage 2B Hodgkin lymphoma (HL).

I hate saying that going through 7 months of chemotherapy and 1 month of radiation was the worst time of my life; in some aspects it was but in other ways, it was not for the simple fact that  I met so many amazing nurses and doctors and I learned so much about myself and my body. 

Now being 10 months in remission, I could not be more grateful for where I am at right now. I was accepted into a nursing program and hope to become a pediatric oncology nurse myself one day, I want to be able to change many families’ lives by making cancer a little lighter than the darkness it sheds amongst patients and their families.