In early 2007, I began to feel some lower abdomen pain that just didn’t go away.  On the morning of March 29, I awoke with extreme tightness in my right leg and quickly noticed that my leg was swollen to about 1 ½ times normal size.  Two days later, I was told that I probably had Lymphoma, although it took nearly a month to formally diagnose me with Diffuse Large B Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an aggressive type of the disease.  I began a regimen of chemotherapy on May 18, 2007,  and completed the final round on August 28.  I remember the nurse congratulating me for reaching my six round of chemo and telling me that my life would soon return to normal.  Wow, she could not have been more wrong!  Although my doctor at that time told me in November, 2007 that I was cancer-free, I knew something wasn’t right.  I was in a tremendous amount of pain and knew that I was still sick.  I sought two additional opinions, and both confirmed that I indeed still had significant amounts of cancer in my body!  I soon sought treatment at a new facility, where my doctor began preparing me for an autologous stem cell transplant.  After a few more rounds of chemo in March, 2008, I was given a drug to stimulate excessive production of stem cells, and then underwent three days of stem cell collection.  I was then admitted to the hospital, where I underwent five days of continuous chemotherapy, followed by stem cell infusion over a two day period.  After about five days, my bone marrow began producing blood cells once again, and I was released from the hospital three days later after spending a total of nineteen days in the Bone Marrow Transplant / Stem Cell wing of the hospital.  A PET scan one month later indicated I was cancer-free.  I was excited but still cautious.  Two months later, my doctor recommended that I have an Endocrinologist examine my thyroid.  Was I surprised by the result?  No!  I had Papillary Thyroid Cancer.  I had a complete thyroidectomy in September, 2008, followed by radioactive iodine treatment to eradicate any traces of thyroid cancer.  At this point, I actually thought that I was finally free of all cancer in my body.  But, one month later, another PET scan indicated the presence of lymphoma in my left groin area.  After 36 radiation treatments, I was once again declared cancer-free.  Then, in June, 2009, a PET scan indicated lymphoma in my chest and spleen. I contacted Cancer Treatment Centers of America and went to Tulsa, Oklahoma.  In early 2010, they began chemotherapy and after 4 rounds, was once again declared cancer-free.  Was this finally the end of the cancer?  Not quite…  In May, 2011, I developed a C. Difficile infection in my intestines and was treated successfully with antibiotics.  However, in September I was scanned by CTCA and told I had thickening in my terminal ileum.  After a bone marrow biopsy (my third) and a colonoscopy, I was told I had lymphoma in my terminal ileum.  I underwent 5 rounds of chemotherapy (2 at CTCA and the last three at The City of Hope), and in January, 2012, was once again declared cancer-free.  At the City of Hope, my doctor is currently searching for a Stem Cell donor, but as of December, 2012, no donor has been found. 

Although I fell pretty well, I realize that I will probably need a donor transplant in the near future to help keep the cancer away.  I am optimistic that this will happen sometime in 2013…