Inspirational Stories

My darkest day, May 1, 2022. Alacia, my daughter, is a strong-willed, beautiful young woman. She had just turned 23 years of age and began experiencing small symptoms that I, her mother and a nurse of 24 years, chalked up to nothing. She was itching ― it was winter, and your skin was dry. She was short of breath ― you are recovering from COVID and have post-COVID funk. She started to vomit and get sick with right upper quadrant pain ― probably just your gallbladder and having gallbladder attacks that need to be checked out. May 1 resulted in a trip to the ED with what I anticipated was cholecystitis. First scan, then another, then we found a hilar mass and several questionable lymph nodes. Gut punch. They admitted her then in hopes of getting things streamlined, unsure at this time what we were dealing with. She did have a few gallstones, but that was obviously not the issue. The surgeon came in and explained the gallbladder issue was really a non-issue, however, given the findings, it was in her best interest to remove it so it did not become a problem to compound the other front-row issues. She did have it removed, and he was able to get an affected lymph to send for a biopsy. In the meantime, she ended up with pancreatitis and was so sick. It was a long three weeks before the results returned. Gray zone lymphoma. Hybrid lymphoma, both Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DLBCL). Treatments started that Wednesday and were aggressive. Every three weeks EPOCH +R. This meant infusion on Fridays of R, then hospital admission on Mondays every three weeks for continuous chemo, and discharge on Friday. It was brutal, to say the least. We quickly learned that on days three and eight after chemo, she needed over fluids, so we started scheduling those ahead of time. Blood transfusions, preemptive antibiotics, we had it down, but she was so, so sick. She carried emesis bags like a support animal. She had more fight in her than she even knew. She fought hard and dug so deep. We counted down the treatments, and finally in October 2022, we got a good scan. Good news. This does not even crack the surface of this young lady’s story, but the most important part is it’s not over yet. Her story has just begun. She is my warrior!