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Communicating With Your Partner
Discussing experiences, feelings and concerns with your partner(s)—giving each other the chance to talk and listen—is an important part of maintaining or improving your quality of life. Your partner may have his or her own concerns, such as being afraid of hurting you during sex, feeling guilty or selfish for wanting to be intimate with you or not knowing how to talk about their feelings. You may also want to talk about seeking help from a professional, such as a couples counselor or sex therapist.
Diet Guidelines For Immunosuppressed Patients
Food safety is important during and after cancer treatments. The immune system is often weakened by cancer treatments, making the body more susceptible to foodborne illnesses.
Neutropenia is a condition where you have lower-than-normal levels of neutrophils (a type of white cell). If you have neutropenia, following food safety guidelines are especially important. Be sure to follow all food handling guidelines to help protect you from bacteria and other harmful organisms found in some mishandled food and beverages.
Stem Cell Transplantation with High-Dose Chemotherapy
High-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation are important parts of treatment plans for eligible, recently diagnosed myeloma patients.
Refractory and Relapsed
Some patients with myeloma have refractory disease. Refractory myeloma is cancer that does not respond to treatment. After a time, almost all myeloma patients will experience relapse, which means the cancer returns after a successful course of treatment. The treatment for relapsed and refractory myeloma is affected by many factors including previous therapy, rate of relapse, patient health, and genetic abnormalities.
Treatment for Relapsed and Refractory MyelomaTreatment for relapsed or refractory myeloma may include:
Barbara
At age 60, I stopped working as a full-time physical therapist and started working PRN at two different facilities. My reasoning was I could help my elderly but healthy parents when needed and help out with my grandkids. Everything was going great until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I was laid off from both jobs. My father was very afraid of COVID-19 and wouldn’t let my mom leave the house, so I started doing all of their shopping. I had been fatigued for months but attributed this to work or being out of shape.
Santino
I was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and underwent an autologous bone marrow transplant back in 2015. By the grace of God, I have been cancer-free for seven years. I was inspired to write some poems after my experience. One of them has actually been published. I hope my poems bring hope to the many cancer warriors out there fighting for their lives. If you are fighting cancer at this very moment, never quit. Remember, you have cancer, cancer does not have you. Every second your heart beats, you always have a chance. God has the final say.
Kate
On May 17, 2018, our family was thrown into the world of blood cancer. Our family's patriarch, our bonus dad, and our beloved "Candy Boy," as he was affectionately nicknamed by his youngest daughter, found out that he was in the aggressive stages of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Timothy
I am an awardee of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Scholarship for Blood Cancer Survivors. I currently hold an associate’s degree in science and am pursuing my bachelor's degree in biology at California State University, San Bernardino, (CSUSB). I am very grateful to be granted this scholarship to help pay for my tuition. In fact, this is the first scholarship I have ever been awarded during my education. These funds are a big stress reliever as it has provided me with the ability to avoid taking out a loan for school and given me peace of mind.
Megan
Megan is my daughter. She was diagnosed in April 2020 with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at the age of 16. At the time, Megan was finishing up her sophomore year of high school. Due to the pandemic, school was virtual, and even though she had a month and a half to go, she finished with straight A’s while receiving chemo. She would go on to have four cycles that included 16 rounds of chemo. Her cancer was still not completely gone, so a 21-day regimen of radiation was administered.
Landon
My cancer journey began on June 24, 2018. A month before that day, I'd experienced chest pains, night sweats, and shortness of breath. After scheduling a doctor's appointment, my primary physician determined that it was merely an upper respiratory infection. For a week, I took the medicine prescribed by my doctor, hoping that I would soon feel well again. With little to no signs of improvement, I scheduled another appointment for Monday, June 25th. We didn't make it to that appointment, because on June 24th, I lost oxygen and passed out.
Alyssa
From December 2021-January 2022, I had just come off orientation for my new job as a registered nurse. I was working the night shift and just thought I was experiencing the "usual" night shift symptoms. I was ALWAYS tired, had terrible back pain, and had such a shift in my appetite. I went for a physical just to be sure. My bloodwork was normal (slightly elevated WBC but told it could have been from stress at work), and my doctor sent me for physical therapy for my back pain. After going to physical therapy for weeks with no improvement, I noticed a lump on my neck.
Nick
My former student, Nick K. was a previous honoree of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Diagnosed with a PNET brain tumor at age 4 and enduring two bouts of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) as a result in the years to follow, Nick was obviously a fighter!
Laura
I became aware of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) after I was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). A social worker at the hospital where I was being treated gave my information to the LLS Patient Services Manager, and she called me. Then she gave me the contact information for a patient who had young children like mine and was two weeks ahead of me in the process, and we spoke with each other.
Amanda
In October 2018, I was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma, oh and I was 5 months pregnant at the time. I had been having recurring bronchitis and sinus infections for several months and I self-diagnosed myself with chronic bronchitis or sinusitis. I went into urgent care in October with severe flu symptoms and a persistent cough that would not go away. I tested negative for influenza and the doctors couldn't find any other type of infection to explain my symptoms. They thought maybe I had pneumonia and asked if I wanted to do an X-ray, given I was pregnant.
Lisa
It's not easy being bald, a bald physician, and a bald wife. This is my third dance with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL). I first met HL in college, as many young girls meet their first pivotal relationship. Sadly for me, I attended an all woman's college, so my pivotal 'boyfriend' came in the form of a first cancer diagnosis.
Justin
In March 2012, when Justin was in the sixth grade, he started to rapidly lose weight, was experiencing extreme exhaustion and night sweats. After multiple visits to the doctor but no answers, his parents finally took him to the hospital for more intensive testing, including a bone marrow biopsy. One day later they received the shocking diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Grace
I’m 15 years old, and I’m a ballerina, Junior Zoo Keeper at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, actress, singer, and I am a childhood leukemia survivor.
When I was five years old, my parents noticed that I was getting a lot more bruises and nose bleeds than usual (even living in New Mexico at the time). My abdomen was really swollen and I was taking frequent naps, which was also alarming to my parents. They took me to an urgent care location near my house where the doctors said that I was fine.
Louise
During the last week of July 2019, Louise, then-two-and-a-half-year-old, developed unusual red dots on her chest and some gnarly, yet explainable, bruises all over her body. We chalked the rash up to wearing an unwashed shirt and the bruises to being an extremely active two-year-old. Then, after her gums bled one afternoon, we hopped on Google and became increasingly concerned with the search results. However, Louise wasn’t acting “sick,” so her parents ignored Dr. Google’s diagnosis.
Madeline
Being in a very close-knit family, we were devastated upon learning of our sister Madeline’s diagnosis of AML. There were 4 of us girls and all 3 of us wanted to do anything to help our sister survive. Our biggest challenge was staying positive and offering her and her family support. The 3 of us were tested and I was her perfect match. I was overjoyed to be able to do this for her. Although my other sisters felt let down that they weren’t, we were all constant support through her journey.
Jennifer
Jennifer of Hayward, CA, was diagnosed with myeloma (MM) in 2008. During this process, she endured a year of intense chemotherapy, followed by an autologous stem cell transplant where her own stem cells were harvested and reintroduced into her body on January 8, 2010. This resulted in an extended hospital stay followed by radiation treatments. She is currently in remission and remains under doctor’s care. After her diagnosis and treatments, she wanted to give back to others living with the disease.
Allison
My story is not all that different from many others. It began with two-year-old me not feeling well and my mom taking me to the pediatrician on a Monday. They diagnosed me with an ear infection and gave me antibiotics. On Friday, still not better, my mom asked my dad if they should let the doctor take another look at me. In my mom’s words, “Something’s not right with my little girl.” Fortunately, the doctor ran a platelet test. My results were so off the charts that she also ran the test on herself to make sure the machine was not broken.
Miah
I am 28 years old and was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) when I was 27. I am a mother of two (a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old daughter). I am a licensed esthetician in Chicago and have run my own beauty business for six years.