ENT Girls

I have Non-Hodgkin's Follicular B Cell Lymphoma, I was diagnosed in 2016. I was watch-and-wait until December of 2018.

I went through chemo and had eight rounds of R-CHOP and that was followed by six rounds of methotrexate. My hematologist was very aggressive in my treatment, which I'm very happy about. I finished chemo on May 30th, 2019, and I've been OK ever since, and just had a recent checkup at the beginning the first week in April, and they gave me the all clear. I feel good. We just take it day by day, right?

I think the biggest challenge for me is maybe two things: my Dad had this exact same diagnosis. Everything was pretty much, very similar to what I have.He went through treatment and of course, passed away during his treatment. So it's very hard, as someone who has had the exact same thing, not to reflect back to that and then envision yourself in the same position, even though my dad passed away 16 years ago.

Then, aside from that, the hardest thing is, if someone is like me, who's very independent and didn't want this to affect their life, trying to make it not affect your life and try to carry on as normal. Even when I was going through chemo, I didn't stop work. It's very hard to accept that maybe you can't do everything that you could do and I'm still struggling a little bit.

I think you sometimes go in and when you do that last chemo treatment, you're like ‘OK, give myself a few weeks, now, and I'll be able to get back to normal.’

Our team, we're fortunate in that the way we've gotten money every year is just by asking people and people expect us to ask now. They know every year this comes up. The people who are the main supporters always give generously and are very supportive.My first Light The Night was very emotional I have to say, I was very overwhelmed.

Those lanterns, when you’re actually there and you’re a survivor or patient, you look around when you’re lifting your white lantern and you see all those other lanterns up in the air, it's very emotional.

In a world where you sometimes feel very alone, when you're going through chemo and nobody else is around and nobody can understand, when you stand at that walk site, and you see all those lanterns lit up by people in the exact situation as you, you suddenly don't feel as alone anymore.

Even though they are complete strangers that are around you, those people lift you up.