Editor's Note: The sole purpose of any story posted on todayinhealth.com is to encourage hope in people who otherwise feel their life is at an end because of a debilitating illness or condition. Reading about overcoming these situations can help inspire hope and peace of mind in some people. Note that some names have been left out or changed for confidentiality reasons.

A Case of Cancer Overcome

As Told By: Anonymous

In November 2000, I went for a consultation to get breast implants. I was ready for the surgery and needed to get blood work done prior to surgery. After a few days, the test results came back positive. I went back to the doctor not feeling any symptoms or showing any signs of being ill. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong.

I went about my usual daily life of work and living at home. There was nothing that was affecting me.

Then one day at work I noticed a small lump on the right side of my neck. It was about the size of a dime. I didn’t think much about it, so I let it go.

Two weeks later, and with more tests, my blood work results were still positive. The doctors thought I had sarcoidosis, but that was not the problem. We couldn’t figure out what was going on. I wasn’t showing any signs of anything.

Until, one day at work, I wasn’t feeling well. I noticed the dime-sized lump had grown to the size of a golf ball in about a week! I went back to the doctors and told them this was something serious and we needed to do something about this lump.

The doctors sent me to Travis Air Force Base in California for my biopsy. It took a few days for the results to come. The next week, I’d gone to work. Then one morning, before work, the doctor called me. She asked if I was sitting down. She told me the results of the biopsy were back. I had cancer.

I was standing when she told me. I fell against the wall, dropped the phone, and started crying.

The doctor told me I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Stage 3A. All I could think about was: Am I going to die? How long will I live? This can’t be happening to me! I don’t understand!

My mind went completely blank. The man I was with at the time took the phone. From that point, I don’t remember anything. I didn’t know anything about Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I just needed to clear my head and figure out my next steps.

That evening, I called my parents and told them the results. Like any other parent, they were devastated.

After I told my parents, the next step was more testing: CAT scans; blood work; more tests. More tests before seeing the oncologist for chemotherapy.

My family came to Fresno to be with me for the consultation and the first round of chemo. I was told I would receive six months of chemotherapy and five different drugs. Two of the five drugs were going to be the worst. I was told that, during treatment, I may lose some or all of my hair. I was told that I may not be able to have children because of the damage the chemotherapy would do to my ovaries. I was going to feel ill; I’d want to stay in bed; I’d have no energy.

I was ready, but the oncologist had to delay for a week.

Before the chemo started, they had to do a bone marrow test to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread elsewhere.

You want to talk about pain? Even the vicodine wasn’t enough to control the pain. The intensity of feeling a part of bone being torn from my lower back was terrible. I hadn’t experienced anything like that before. It was by far the worst thing I have ever gone through. But it was that which gave me hope that my cancer would be cured.

As my first chemo treatment drew near, I was sad that my family couldn’t be with me. But I had to do it without them.

My first treatment took 14 hours. It sucked badly! I had to sit in a recliner for that long, hooked up to an IV and just waiting hour after hour for the drugs to run through me without burning my veins. It was no fun at all! In the beginning, the treatment wasn’t so bad. Toward the end, though, the last two drugs hurt badly.

Going through this every two weeks for six months was no vacation. Toward the end of my treatment, I caught pneumonia and had to be hospitalized overnight. My family came out again to help me out.

I didn’t get much sleep during the chemo treatment. Yes, you do rest and sleep, but it’s not the sleep that you would usually get if you weren’t sick.

I had to go back to the hospital for more tests. I was shot with needles, and I felt ill. I hated everyone around me. I didn’t want to do anything but be alone and sleep. I got almost no sleep that night, and I wanted nothing more than to go home.

Not long after that, I had four more chemo treatments. Then I had a month off before starting radiation. My veins were completely shot after five months of brutal treatment. I had to go in for another consultation to get a catheter in my chest. However, I absolutely refused that because I didn’t want anything more to do with doctors.

As time went on, I just held out and dealt with the pain of chemo. Before I knew it, my chemo treatments were over. I had a month to let my body rest from all the hell I’d put it through.

In August 2001, after long months of chemotherapy, I had to go in for yet another doctor consultation. I was told I would be receiving radiation Monday through Friday for the next month.

My thoughts at that time? I just wanted it all to be completely over. It had been the longest six months of my life. I felt that I had given all I could to the time of the treatment and the doctors.

Thankfully, radiation was easy. I went in on a daily basis for a month and lay on a bed while the doctors scanned my body where the cancer was. That was pretty much it.

Having gone through seven or eight months of doctor visits, surgery, six long months of chemotherapy, and a month of radiation, I was happy that it was a finally coming to an end. I was tired of working with anyone in the medical field.

It took a while to regain my energy level and get back to my normal life.

Looking back at this, I sometimes can’t believe I had cancer. I remember days when I was young and thought to myself that I’d never get through it. I couldn’t imagine what it was like. Until that one day. Now I know what it’s like and how important life really is. I’m so grateful to my family for being there as much as they were, and I thank God for giving me another chance at life.

You don’t really know what it is to go through life, then fight a serious illness where the chances of living were slim. I fought the fight and made it through.

I know what to expect "if" I were to have to go through it again. Life is too short and precious. Live life to the fullest and don’t sweat the small stuff. In the end, the small things don’t really matter. It’s you and your life that truly matters.