Inspirational Stories

My world changed forever in April 2021. Life was going so well . . . I was 35 years old, my kids Henry (9), Olivia (7), and Ruby (5) were getting excited about summer break (and all the trips we had planned), my insurance business was in full swing, and all my plants and flowers were in bloom. I was doing what I loved most, working in the yard, when I noticed my right pinky finger was going numb, and I began having trouble walking. We immediately went to the ER. The doctors initially thought it was a stroke, but luckily a fantastic neurosurgeon was on call and saw the MRI. Within a week I was to have an open craniotomy to biopsy the lesions since they could not figure out what was wrong with me. My condition worsened to the point where I lost function on my right side and had trouble speaking. The tumor was spreading very quickly; it grew 25% in a week, and a few weeks after the biopsy, I was diagnosed with a very rare condition called primary central nervous system T-cell lymphoma (PCNSL), essentially blood cancer in my brain.

The next day I was admitted for my first inpatient chemotherapy treatment, and over the course of five months, I would have seven additional treatments. This was followed by a three-week stay in the hospital for a successful stem cell transplant in October 2021. Every day since my diagnosis, life has been a daily struggle, but I am happy to share that I am 22 months in remission and improving every day!!! 

It is so frustrating to not only beat cancer, but I had to learn how to talk, read, write (left-handed now), walk, and basically relearn everything again because of the brain damage. With the help of my amazing therapists and my mom, I have powered through countless hours of physical, occupational, and speech therapy to improve my cognition and regain some use of my right side. I received my driver's license last winter, recently hiked over 20 miles in Glacier National Park this summer, and started working again. I could not have done it without the love, support, letters, cards, and prayers from my family, friends, and the entire Jill's Village. We are so lucky to live in a city like Cincinnati with one of the best Blood Cancer and Cellular Therapy Centers in the country. The doctors and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) saved my life!