Adult who Survived Hodgkins as a Child

Hi. I am brand new to csn. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's in 1983 at age 19. I am 43 now and am female. I have had a basal cell skin cancer on my back, and at age 41 was diagnosed with breast cancer. They couldn't tell me if the breast cancer was caused by radiation from Hodgkin's or not. The lump was on the inside upper left breast where I had had previous radiation. I had a bilateral mastectomy + chemo. I've not had any heart problems so far, but they still look at my lungs every year or more because of something that looks interesting to them--perhaps scar tissue? I'm interested in any one who has had other complications, too.

Brenda2593 said:

Hi, I am also new to csn. I was diagnosed with hodgkin's disase in 1983 also. Recently I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and had bilateral mastectomy with tram flap reconstruction. I was told my breast cancer was from the radiation I received for the Hodgkin's. I also have been told I need to take care of my heart. Actually my oncologist told me I would have a heart attack before I'd get breast cancer Boy was he wrong!!!

It's weird--the levels of connectedness in the cancer of community. First you join the club of being someone with cancer (or, someone with childhood cancer to be exact). Then, for all us lucky ones, a survivor of childhood cancer. If you are lucky, that's where it ends. But like myself, and those of you here, it seems this list of associations grows with time...

I too am a survivor of childhood NHL, diagnosed in 1989 at age 11 and treated with chemo and radiation for close ot a year. Between 2005 and the present, I have been diagnosed and treated for thyroid microcarcinoma (undergoing a thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment) and bi-lateral Stage I breast cancer (undergoing bi-lateral mastectomy).

Relatively unaware (and not receiving specialized follow-up care up until my thyroid cancer diagnosis) I feel lucky every day to have had the stars align such that I seemed to be at the right place and right time through it all, and am now educating myself (and others) and receiving the survivorship care that it so necessary.

I turned 30 years old this June, and just 7 months out of my breast cancer ordeal, am doing well--at turns worried about the future, but thankful to have access to the information necessary to remain empowered and be proactive, doing everything in my power to mitigate the long-term effects of chemo and radiation. Every day, I learn something new. For instance, this is the first time I've heard about or met (albeit virtually), anyone who has had 2 secondary malignancies. Just think how isolated we would all be without the Internet!

I am grateful to have stumbled across this site and found this tonight (as I was struggling, as I sometimes to, to remain positive about my future). As an old friend once said, and perhaps was right: "there are no coincidences". The few stories I read here now have given me solace and hope tonight. And I am proud to belong yet again to a new club, with all of you.

And now I will sleep to prepare for my weekend 25-mile bike ride tomorrow (a new healthy diversion I have discovered)!