How did you find out you had Hodgkin lymphoma?
It was a ragged road to my diagnosis. My wife, Marilyn, and I had just returned from Italy, and I started having sweats and chest issues, including coughing. I went to my doctor; his best guess was pneumonia. But my wife, who had worked as a lab tech, saw the results of my blood test, realized my hemoglobin was low and suggested I see a hematologist. At the John Theurer Cancer Center, which is affiliated with Hackensack University Medical Center, they performed more blood tests, including of my bone marrow. Still no diagnosis. When my symptoms got worse, they performed a PET scan, and I was finally diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s. After two months of seeing different doctors, it was official.

1. When were you diagnosed?
I was 14. What started out as a cold and congestion turned out to be non-Hodgkins lymphoma; I had a tumor in my mediastinum--the chest cavity--that wasn’t allowing blood to get through. My arms, legs and face turned red, and I couldn’t swallow food. When my pediatrician took a chest x-ray, I was sent right away to the emergency room. That’s when I had a biopsy. It was 1977.
My mother was ahead of her time. She was a very strong advocate and probably the doctors’ nightmare, because she wanted to know every detail. I didn’t know what was happening; I just knew I was sick.
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​1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
I received the diagnosis of cancer in November 1995, after being told by my primary care physician for nine months that nothing was wrong with me. He said I was just “a stressed-out mother of three.” It was my gynecologist who actually listened to me and ran tests. In addition to abnormal blood work, I was also diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder in which the immune system destroys platelets. My gynecologist would save me again later on, when I was having a late-term miscarriage with complications, and he happened to be the doctor on call.

1. Describe your life when you were diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at age ten.
I was swimming competitively year-round and a pretty active kid. My symptoms arose when, as an altar boy, I became overheated on the altar and felt like I was going to faint. The pediatrician diagnosed anemia. However, soon I was hyperventilating when I swam across the pool.
A chest x-ray showed a spot on my lungs. This led to a biopsy; I had a swollen lymph node on my neck and was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s stage 4A.

1. When did you learn you had Hodgkin lymphoma?
It was 1983; I was a law student, home visiting my family during a break. I was playing with my necklace when my fingers touched something on my neck that felt like a golfball. My Mom and I were in shock when we realized we could see the “lump.” She wanted me to wait a bit, thinking it would disappear. My Mom was hopeful but scared. I was just plain scared.
“I will not wait -- I am getting it checked out NOW!” I said. Little did I know that, down the road, these words would become my mantra when dealing with any of the weird physical or emotional feelings I had. 

1. What do you remember from your experience with Hodgkin lymphoma?
My capacity for denial was powerful and complex. As a young adult with a history of “Hodgkin’s disease,” as we used to call it, I vowed never to tell anyone, especially once my treatment was over. Never—under any circumstances. But that vow became harder to keep each passing year as the side effects and late effects nudged or barged their way into my life. I gradually accepted that it could never be over.

1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
It was 1987; I had developed a lump the size of a golf ball that protruded from the base at the right side of my neck. I was serving as a police officer with the City of Manhattan Beach, California, at the time. I blamed the accompanying fatigue on the long, extended shifts I was working. Doctor visits, labs and diagnostic procedures followed. This led to me being diagnosed with stage 3a Hodgkin lymphoma.
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Cancer? My wife, Debbie, and I were shocked at the news. After 50 radiation sessions, the lymphoma went into remission. It took several months to heal from the laparotomy and gain sufficient energy before I was able to return to full duty at the police department.

1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
I was diagnosed and received treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma in 1978. I was well aware of the possible late effects and always made sure I stayed right on top of the annual checkups I needed. When my sister-in-law, Anita, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s the same year as me, passed away due to complications from coronary artery disease, I decided that, as a precaution, I should ask my cardiologist to perform some additional tests. I’d had annual Holter monitor and echo stress tests for a few years.
Apart from some breathlessness when walking up steps and hills, I had no symptoms. My cardiologist protested that I was overreacting, and further testing wasn’t necessary, but he subsequently ordered a CT scan that showed my arteries were severely narrowed and clogged. An angiogram then revealed my right coronary artery was 99% blocked. Fortunately, I was able to have a stent inserted during the same procedure.
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1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
It was 1987, and I was driving home from work when I reached up to scratch the side of my neck and discovered an egg-sized lump. “What is that?” I wondered. I was 20 at the time, and when I arrived home, I asked my mom, a nurse, to take a look. She turned white. I was soon being examined by our family doctor, who took x-rays.

We sat in the waiting room, awaiting the results, which he brought over and held up to show us that my chest cavity was white; it was full of disease. Two weeks later, I went for a surgical biopsy, which is when we found out it was Hodgkin lymphoma. This was followed by a slew of tests: barium drinks, CT scans, a bone marrow biopsy and a lymphangiogram, which left polka-dot tattoos on every toe that are still visible today. Then there was the staging laparotomy, performed to determine the extent of disease, followed by surgical removal of my spleen, which was brutal. I spent eight days in the hospital and remember a kind, gentle doctor sitting on the side of my bed and saying “I am going to take good care of you and get you well.”

1. How old were you when you were diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
I was 18 and treated with mantle field radiation. Life went on and, in 2013-14, I became constantly tired. I was working three days a week as a general practitioner and doing the basics at home, but unable to do much else in life. I was quite often ill with chest infections. I also had nerve pain that affected my right arm and hand. I worked when I could, sometimes when it would have been better to rest. Even so, I had to take a lot of time off, which caused stress and upset me a lot. As I approached 50, I wondered how much longer I could keep going with my job.

1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
It was 1982, and I was a 21-year-old, newly married graduate student, taking a full load of classes and working full-time. Feeling tired was par for the course—my “new normal.” During an annual physical exam, my doctor felt a lump in my neck and told me that if I found another one, or if this one didn’t disappear in a few weeks, I should come back.

The swelling did NOT go away. I returned to my physician, and this time he recommended a biopsy to determine why the lymph node was swollen. He said that it was probably nothing, just my body fighting an infection or possibly “cat scratch fever.” He never mentioned the “C” word. My biopsy was on March 30. Two days later, on April Fools’ Day, I was told that I had Hodgkin’s disease. NOT funny.

1. When were you diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma?
In 1991, I was a young nurse, and I found a lump, which is how my Hodgkin lymphoma was discovered. I was treated with only radiation therapy since I’d had a staging laparotomy with splenectomy. Then in 1997, I discovered a lump in my groin area; I had a recurrence of Hodgkin’s.
But I was initially told I had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and there was no treatment available. I went for a second opinion, where they said it was a recurrence of Hodgkin’s. So I went to the National Institutes of Health for a third opinion; their opinion was that I had a recurrence, and I began ABVD chemotherapy (adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine).
After three months of chemotherapy, I got married. Although my menstrual cycle had stopped during chemo, I soon became pregnant; my daughter was born in 1998. I went on to love my life and had two more daughters while working full-time as a nurse.