Inspirational Stories

As a Greek Latina indie author, I found it empowering to share my fight with lymphoma through social media and with my current writing. Many have told me that it’s inspiring, and I hope that leads to more attention and support for those fighting blood cancers like lymphoma.

My Latina grandmother had lymphoma several years ago and continued to survive years after. While she is gone now (not by lymphoma), I think of her often during chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She only experienced chemotherapy, but I still felt a connection to her through it all. She was the first person I knew directly who had cancer, especially blood cancer. It led to me learning more but still not enough to know what to look for when I started to have symptoms.

At first, I thought my symptoms were connected to long COVID-19 (which was diagnosed early in the pandemic), but every test confirmed that it wasn’t. I still sensed something was wrong with me. I kept asking, but it took until my neck was visibly swollen for more testing to occur. After several tests, they were able to determine what kind of lymphoma I had and what treatment I needed.

Chemotherapy was a roller coaster, but I wouldn’t have been able to get through it without support from my care team (along with mental health counselors). Radiation therapy at first was better than chemotherapy, but then it got worse because of how the side effects made things harder for me to eat and speak because of the pain. While I didn’t need radiation, I’m thankful that I went through it because it reassures me that we’ve fought off all the lymphoma. Once again, I wouldn’t have gone through it without my care team. Through all this, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has been supporting my health journey with resources and support.

It makes me thankful to know that there are people out there who want to help improve the care gap, support research, and support those fighting blood cancers. I know I’ll continue to support LLS in the ways I can.