New to this...

cristin
cristin Member Posts: 2
edited March 2014 in Young Cancer Survivors #1
Hello! I am a young cancer survivor, well, depending on what is considered young! I am 25 and was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease three years ago while I was still in school. I had just gotten back from a semester abroad in Australia and just days before gotten a new puppy, who turned out to be my little guardian angel through it all! I opted to stay in school for as long as I could, and I finished out the semester with half my credits. I stayed at school, 8hrs. from home and 4 from my treatment hospital, but I wanted to be surrounded by my friends. I went through 9 months of treatment, chemo & radiation, lost all my hair, but made it to this point! I went back to school the following year and just now graduated (finally!) I celebrate the day I was diagnosed every single year and not a day goes by that I don't think back on that experience. Some people seem to think that cancer is a topic to shy away from, but I like to talk about my experience because it was REAL and it was a huge life experience - I can't just ignore it!
I heard about this website on TV and wanted to check it out - I thought it would be nice to talk to other survivors, others who really understand. I'm new to this, so I don't really know how it works. Just wanted to put a greeting out and share a little of my story - and I'd love to hear anyone elses!
Many cheers!

Comments

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #2
    This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • andreae
    andreae Member Posts: 236
    #3
    Hi,

    I am a young cancer survivor as well. I am 21 years old and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer on January 2003. Went through chemo/radiation/surgery and then metastases to the lungs were discovered. I am currently on a second-line chemo drug and still fighting. I have lots more good days then bad. I have been in school since the surgery, I go out with my friends and battle cancer on the side! I refer to it as my extracurricular activity, he,he. I'm being treated at an adult center, thus most of my chemo buddies could be my father/grand-father therefore I'm always looking for young people to share stories and suggestions.

    Hope to hear from more of you!
  • gena55
    gena55 Member Posts: 1
    #4
    Hi Cristin,
    I am a 25 year old Hodgkin's Disease Survivor as well. I was diagnosed in Oct. 1997 when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. I went through 6 months of chemo and 1 month of radiation. I finished up treatment in July and headed back to class in August. I grad. in 2001. I am so excited about this discussion board because there does not seem to be many outlets for Young Cancer Survivors!
    Hope to hear more from you soon :-)

    Congrats on your graduation!
  • klker
    klker Member Posts: 8
    #5
    gena55 said:

    Hi Cristin,
    I am a 25 year old Hodgkin's Disease Survivor as well. I was diagnosed in Oct. 1997 when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. I went through 6 months of chemo and 1 month of radiation. I finished up treatment in July and headed back to class in August. I grad. in 2001. I am so excited about this discussion board because there does not seem to be many outlets for Young Cancer Survivors!
    Hope to hear more from you soon :-)

    Congrats on your graduation!

    Hi, I am new to this site as well and am a 30 year old hodgkin's patient. I was diagnosed in Nov. 2001 and have had 6 months of ABVD chemo, twice a day/everyday for 2 weeks of radiation and a stem cell transplant.
    We all struggle with having cancer and everyone has their own personal issues but I am looking forward to talking to other people in my age group. I feel like so much has been robbed from me and although I should be satisfied with "being alive", I selfishly want my old life back. And I am nervous and discouraged by my future. At 28, my life as I knew it was changed forever.
    sorry about the self pity party, just having one of those days.
    best wishes to you all and hope to speak to you more. klker
  • shmurciakova
    shmurciakova Member Posts: 906 Member
    #6
    andreae said:

    Hi,

    I am a young cancer survivor as well. I am 21 years old and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer on January 2003. Went through chemo/radiation/surgery and then metastases to the lungs were discovered. I am currently on a second-line chemo drug and still fighting. I have lots more good days then bad. I have been in school since the surgery, I go out with my friends and battle cancer on the side! I refer to it as my extracurricular activity, he,he. I'm being treated at an adult center, thus most of my chemo buddies could be my father/grand-father therefore I'm always looking for young people to share stories and suggestions.

    Hope to hear from more of you!

    My name is Susan and I am a colon cancer survivor. I am 33 now (almost 34). I was diagnosed 2 years ago and then had a recurrence in the liver last year followed by surgery, more chemo. At my recent CT scan two spots were discovered on my lung.....I then had a PET scan. They are too small to say right now if it is cancer or not, so I am waiting until May when I go for another CT. I am in "limbo" right now just hoping and praying for a good outcome in May! I would love to talk to someone else my age who has been through this, so all you young CC survivors, please e-mail me!!
  • woodd00
    woodd00 Member Posts: 9
    #7
    I think everyone has put it well. I am glad the CSN folks have set up this forum. If you are reading these, thanks Jose! :-) It is hard to connect with other young cancer survivors and this forum will be great. Most of the folks I saw at chemo and radiation were 50/60+ so I never really got to connect with anyone else my age

    As for me, I am a 26 year old cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease stage IIB in November 2002. I went through 3 months of weekly (sometimes twice weekly) chemo treatments (Stanford V regime) and 4 weeks of daily radiation. With the exception of some scar tissue I am clean and loving life. As with everyone else I hated being sick and get nervous everytime I have a check up for fears that it may return. However, cancer gave me the wake up call that I needed to make sure and enjoy the rest of my life. Now when ever I face a challenge I compare it to cancer and things seem a little bit more in perspective. :-).

    I look forward to chatting with you all!

    Dan
  • bunnie
    bunnie Member Posts: 233
    #8
    Hi welcome i hope you find this site very helpfull I know i have thought iam not that young iam 35 was dignosed at 34 and know my cancer has came back already just a month short of being done with chemo for ayear the first time around and know iam back at it.I hope it works this time.Bunnie
  • AstroLark
    AstroLark Member Posts: 3
    #9
    Hey everybody! I'm pretty young too, I'll be 17 this May. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's stage 2B on June 14, 2001 (funny how those dates stick with you, huh?); I was 14 at the time. Initially, I was glad to get the diagnosis; anything was better than NOT knowing what was wrong with me. Anyway, though, my story gets pretty long and I'm sure you've all heard stories like it before, so I won't go into it. The basics: I went through six rounds of the ABVD/MOPP treatments and a month of radiation, and am finally all recovered!! I'll have been in remission for two years on my birthday: Now my birthday is the best day in the world to me. Anyway, that's all from me, but I'd love to talk to all you guys some other time! As my two-year-old niece says, "Peace out!"
  • JenDove
    JenDove Member Posts: 2
    #10
    Hi,
    My name is Jennifer. I just joined CSN a few days ago. I'm 28, and I'm a survivor of non-hodgkins lymphoma. I was diagnosed with large cell t-cell NHL in stage 4 when I was 18, during my senior year of high school. I went through 13 months of intense chemo. And I've been off therapy and cancer-free for 9 years! It was tough dealing with cancer as a teen, but I had a lot of family and friends to support me. Funny, you learn who your REAL friends are when you go through something like this!
    Looking forward to hearing from other young cancer survivors!

    JenDove
  • White392
    White392 Member Posts: 2
    #11
    JenDove said:

    Hi,
    My name is Jennifer. I just joined CSN a few days ago. I'm 28, and I'm a survivor of non-hodgkins lymphoma. I was diagnosed with large cell t-cell NHL in stage 4 when I was 18, during my senior year of high school. I went through 13 months of intense chemo. And I've been off therapy and cancer-free for 9 years! It was tough dealing with cancer as a teen, but I had a lot of family and friends to support me. Funny, you learn who your REAL friends are when you go through something like this!
    Looking forward to hearing from other young cancer survivors!

    JenDove

    I'm also a young cancer survivor. I was dx with aml in May 2002 when I was 19. I've had lots of chemo, radiation, and two bone marrow transplants and I'm still here thanks to my loving donor. I can't say it hasn't been hard at times, but she never gave up on me so I couln't either. I really like the idea of this message board also. I'm pretty new to the whole thing at the moment. I had a hard time meeting people like me when I was being treated. I was the only adult on my floor at my first hospital. At my second hospital everybody is three or four times my age now.
  • cristin
    cristin Member Posts: 2
    #12
    gena55 said:

    Hi Cristin,
    I am a 25 year old Hodgkin's Disease Survivor as well. I was diagnosed in Oct. 1997 when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. I went through 6 months of chemo and 1 month of radiation. I finished up treatment in July and headed back to class in August. I grad. in 2001. I am so excited about this discussion board because there does not seem to be many outlets for Young Cancer Survivors!
    Hope to hear more from you soon :-)

    Congrats on your graduation!

    Hi Gena55!
    Thanks for the reply - it's been awhile since I've been able to get on, so I'm so happy to see all the replies!
    It's such a bummer that so many people can actually relate to what I've gone through, but at the same time it's nice to have someone understand. So many of my friends and the people I meet don't want to talk about it - they think that I don't want to talk about it, but what's better than facing it?! I think that's silly - I like to talk about it cuz I'm a survivor and darn proud of it!
    I've recently joined the board for the Relay for Life in my area. I'm the youngest person, but the only survivor. I think it's nice to get some young people out there so that others will want to join too.
    I hope things are going well for you.
    Cheers to you and all the other survivors out there!
  • Linz1216
    Linz1216 Member Posts: 2
    #13
    JenDove said:

    Hi,
    My name is Jennifer. I just joined CSN a few days ago. I'm 28, and I'm a survivor of non-hodgkins lymphoma. I was diagnosed with large cell t-cell NHL in stage 4 when I was 18, during my senior year of high school. I went through 13 months of intense chemo. And I've been off therapy and cancer-free for 9 years! It was tough dealing with cancer as a teen, but I had a lot of family and friends to support me. Funny, you learn who your REAL friends are when you go through something like this!
    Looking forward to hearing from other young cancer survivors!

    JenDove

    Hi Jen

    I am a 21 yr old going through treatment right now for peripheral t-cell NHL. Your message gives a lot of hope...just hearing that someone has survived t-cell lymphoma. Did you get a BMT and what chemos did you have?

    ~linz
  • JenDove
    JenDove Member Posts: 2
    #14
    Linz1216 said:

    Hi Jen

    I am a 21 yr old going through treatment right now for peripheral t-cell NHL. Your message gives a lot of hope...just hearing that someone has survived t-cell lymphoma. Did you get a BMT and what chemos did you have?

    ~linz

    Hi Linz,
    No, I didn't have a BMT during my treatment. I received quite a few types of chemo, and it's been 9 years since completing treatment, so I may not remember every one, but here are most of them: Adriamycin, ARA-C, Methotrexate, Prednisone, 6-MP, Vincristine. It was definitely a tough road, but I made it!
    Please let me know if you have any other questions. Glad to be able to help!!

    Jen
  • bellabella
    bellabella Member Posts: 1
    #15
    andreae said:

    Hi,

    I am a young cancer survivor as well. I am 21 years old and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer on January 2003. Went through chemo/radiation/surgery and then metastases to the lungs were discovered. I am currently on a second-line chemo drug and still fighting. I have lots more good days then bad. I have been in school since the surgery, I go out with my friends and battle cancer on the side! I refer to it as my extracurricular activity, he,he. I'm being treated at an adult center, thus most of my chemo buddies could be my father/grand-father therefore I'm always looking for young people to share stories and suggestions.

    Hope to hear from more of you!

    I was wondering did you have any knowledge that you might have canser or did you just go in sick and the doctor started to do tests. Because I am not doing so good and I mean it is not like I am someone who freaks out at the first sign of something different but I just have been having things going on that are just not in the norm. So I was just wondering if there were any warning sign that alarmed you. And if so could you tell me. Thanks for your time.
  • sublime86
    sublime86 Member Posts: 3
    #16
    JenDove said:

    Hi,
    My name is Jennifer. I just joined CSN a few days ago. I'm 28, and I'm a survivor of non-hodgkins lymphoma. I was diagnosed with large cell t-cell NHL in stage 4 when I was 18, during my senior year of high school. I went through 13 months of intense chemo. And I've been off therapy and cancer-free for 9 years! It was tough dealing with cancer as a teen, but I had a lot of family and friends to support me. Funny, you learn who your REAL friends are when you go through something like this!
    Looking forward to hearing from other young cancer survivors!

    JenDove

    Its soooo good to hear of someone survivng this monster. Im 18 years old and was diagnosed my senoir year in Januruary of 05 and have just finished my 6th round of chemo out of 8. I was diagnosed with Lympoblastic t-cell Non-Hodgkins. Its really scary to kno where your gonna end up but i feel confident and keeping the right mind set. Its a real inspiration to hear your story and my email is PIMPdaddycsc20@hotmail.com and id love to hear from you sometime. take care!

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