My short, but bumpy ride with hodgkin's (My story)

Hi my name is Cameron Reicheneker, and I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 16 (Stage 2B, Lymphocyte Predominant) In late December 2010, after I received a biopsy of an enlarged lymph node on my neck. I began treatment in early January 2011, after another surgery was performed to insert my Medi-Port. The regiment my oncologist decided to choose was CHOP chemotherapy, a very short but higher-dose regiment.

SO IT ALL BEGAN...

So, I began chemotherapy which I received in-patient. I must admit I was pretty nervous and was not sure what to expect. I asked my self, Will the chemo burn when it enters my body? and other ridiculous questions. While the nurse informed me there was nothing to be worried about, but i was told to be aware of Nausea and Vomiting as it was "going" to happen. Well, during my entire "acquaintanceship" with chemo i never once got sick at the stomach, or vomited, as a matter of fact i had NO minor side effects, except hair loss and the loss of taste. But unfortunately, i had something a little bit more scary.

NOT A NORMAL DAY IN CLINIC

During the middle of my second round of chemotherapy, I was going into clinic to receive my Vincristine. The nurses prepped the area, and accessed my Medi-Port, they then continued to flush it and tried to draw blood and then something strange happened, I got very very disoriented and dizzy they layed me back on the chair and thought nothing of it, the ensured me it was common to get a little-lightheaded when drawing blood. BUT it was not getting any better, so they decided to move me to one of the chemo-cubicles and give me a bag of fluids to see if it would help. Well of course it did not lol, and they then moved me into the isolation room on a stretcher, as i was now beginning to receive very very rapid chills. The doctor came in and was puzzled, as i began to get more and more dizzy, and more more rapid chills. She then told me "I failed her last test" and that I was going upstairs and was getting admitted, she then told me that she was almost fully positive, my central line was infected and took some blood cultures and started some Vanco-mycin right away as i settled into my hospital bed...

THREE DAYS LATER...

It was actually superbowl Sunday, and i was beginning to feel better and they informed me that I would be getting discharged tomorrow, my blood cultures also came back negative which puzzled me. After having Vanoco-Mycin every 8 hours and since i was feeling better i was almost positive my self i had an infection... but o well i had nothing to be worried about i was going home tomorrow ...WRONG..

LATER THAT NIGHT...

I was so glad that I was getting to go home tomorrow morning, and was very anxious to get to sleep after the superbowl. I then received my nightly medications and began to lay down and prepare to sleep, when the pain hit me... i SHOT up in bed and was in excruciating pain, I was almost crying! Out of 10 pain scale my pain was about 10,000 ... The nurse came in and knew something was going wrong, the resident on duty came in and instantly gave me a 100mg shot of fentanyl, sweet i went from horrible horrible pain to a state of euphoria and zero pain. Well... that lasted for a whopping 5 minutes, until the pain hit me like a freight-train once again. The resident came back and suggested we try some Tylenol, im thinking to my self... seriously... you go from Fetanyl to Tylenol thats sure going to work. I refused to take the tylenol and the senior resident came in and notice my pain right-away and prescribed some morphine. At last... relief that lasted a few hours, and not just 5 minutes. I then went to sleep, but was still worried about my pain. I awoke a few hours later, and was in pain again... My nurse rushed in with the morphine and I would be fine again for a few hours. This continued to happen all night, and I was getting close to none sleep something was going on and I informed my doctor that I would really really like a CT-scan of my back. After talking about it for a bit, she decided to order the test and informed me that she was sure the results were going to be normal.

OFF I GO...

Knock.Knock. Transport was ready to take me down to CT, they released the brake on my bed and rolled me down to the elevators and off to CT we went. They then slid me over to the CT table and began to commence the scan. I began to shoot up with pain, as i was asked to stay still on the table, i began to squirm and scream as my pain increased. They then had to strap me down with some more restraints so I would stay still. 15 minutes later the scan was done, I was on the verge of crying and I returned to my hospital room. I then layed in my bed patiently waiting for the doctor to come in with the results, I was confident something was going to show up, my parents and the doctor we're confident nothing was going to show up. But, oh boy something did show up and it was not what I was expecting to hear...

THE DOCTOR ENTERED...

The doctor came into my room, and she did not have a very happy look on her face... I knew something was wrong... but I never would thought I would hear this diagnosis. "Cameron, you have a Pulmonary Embolism and are being transferred to the ICU." My doctor told me. I was shocked... and in the next five minutes there were 5 nurses in my room, sticking me with 2 more IVs and a technician doing an ECHO-Cardiogram on me. The doctor told me I was starting Heparin stat, as the ECHO tech finished up the exam and informed my doctor that there were 2 more clots, one in my SVC and one on the end of central line. I was overwhelmed... I am only 16 I am not supposed to have blood clots. So began the most hectic week of my life.

AFTER THE ECHO...

After the echo was done, and the nurses finished drawing blood on me. They then hooked me up to a portable monitor and literally raced me down the hall to the ICU. As they parked my bed in my new room, I was greeted by another barrage of nurses and was told me that they were going to have to start another IV , as they were only putting heparin into my central port. That soon changed as they decided they needed to start TPA right away, and then decided to put in the IV after they started the TPA. Well after 6 sticks and 1 hematoma later, they got the maintenance line in and then everything finally began to slow down a bit. Only a few hours ago, remember i was supposed to be discharged. But instead of going home, i got a transfer to the ICU and 10-day extension in the hospital and was put on bed rest. I was lucky though, my vitals were extremely stable and I the TPA had worked. The rest of the week pretty much sucked as I could not get out of the bed, and was on constant-watch by a dedicated nurse assigned just to me.

Well, after that week i finally got to go home, and now have to inject my self with Lovanox every 12 hours. I never did receive that dose of vincristine, but i was okay as of a few weeks later i had a PET scan that showed... I had entered remission, I was cancer free...