Hi, I'm Julia, and I never thought I'd ever do one of these.

 

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in September of 2020 after months and months of doctors telling me I just had long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms. I had to fight to get anyone to do another diagnostic test to see what was wrong with me because I knew it was something more serious.

 

Hodgkin's Lymphoma has an excellent primary remission rate, but unfortunately, I was not in the lucky 90%. After being in remission for only a few months, I started to feel the same pains I had before, and my following scan showed that the cancer was likely back. After waiting a couple of months to rescan and do multiple biopsies, it was confirmed that my cancer was back.

 

The first round of treatment was 'just' a chemo regiment. Looking back, that seems like a walk in the park. The second go-around was two bone marrow biopsies, light chemo, heavy-duty chemo, days of harvesting my stem cells, replacing my stem cells, a month in the hospital where I can't remember half of it, and now a year of recovery for my body and immune system. Because of cancer treatment, I now have other life-long medical conditions that need to be managed as well. 

There's so much more to this story, but thanks for reading. Anything is greatly appreciated; I never expected a lifetime of medical expenses, as I'm sure no one does.

 

Thank you,

Julia

 

Before

 

Now

 

 

Looking forward to becoming myself again.