48 years survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma and now the side effects

juanchoboyd89

I wanted to share an update about my mother’s health, as many of you have experienced similar long-term effects from cancer treatments. She is a very pleasant 66-year-old woman who is a 48-year survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma. Diagnosed in 1976, she received cobalt mantle radiation as part of her treatment. She was only 17 years old.

While she has successfully survived cancer, she has experienced several complications from the radiation. These include thyroid cancer, for which she had a partial resection, as well as radiation heart disease. She has also had an aortic valve replacement through TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) and continues to manage significant aortic valve disease and pericarditis.

Despite these ongoing health challenges, she continues to approach each day with remarkable strength and optimism.

Thank you for allowing me to share her journey. I hope her experience resonates with those of you who have also faced long-term effects from past treatments.

po18guy

Thank you! and she was treated in the relative stone age of chemotherapy. Something to ponder is the number of people who experience the same health issues who never had a cancer diagnosis. "Life changer", "game changer" etc. are all very trite expressions. I prefer to think of cancer as re-setting my perspective. Survivors may be weaker physically, but they are assuredly stronger mentally, even spiritually. All else is less of a threat once cancer is seen in restrospect.