Hello and welcome to a blog made just for young adults with cancer. My name is Lauren and I am… welp you guessed it!!… a young adult with cancer. I have been fighting Hodgkins Lymphoma for a couple years now. My goal with this blog is to create a supportive community of young adults with cancer from all over the world. Lets band together and begin a movement. We are such a unique group- too old for a childrens cancer ward, but the youngest at our oncologists. Too unestablished to pay for this on our own and too young to have good enough insurance to cover it. We rely on our parents in an awkward way for us. Afterall, many of us JUST moved out! So now what?!
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Me and a wonderful friend, about 2 months into ABVD chemo. |
That’s what this blog is here for, to tell you what you can do next in this crazy mixed up cancer journey. Share your story, I’ll share mine, and together we are going to learn, grow, and move forward.
Grace Under Cancer 
Hi my name is Lauren. I was diagnosed October 21 2012. I’m only 19 years old, and I was just attending my second year of college, had the best summer vacation, and a really nice boyfriend. Everything was ehh cause I kept getting these pains, it felt like a Sciatic pain since July in my knees and hips. It stopped for a month but then came back and it was stronger. Then every other month turned into every other week then every day. I had been missing some classes. then I didn’t go to school for two weeks. I could barely even walk, and I knew something was wrong. Turns out I had ALL Leukemia.
Lauren,
First of all, awesome name. Secondly, thanks for sharing. Are you in treatment now? Do you have a blog or IG? I’m praying for comfort for you- for your mind, body, and soul. Keep on keeping on, my cancer fighter sista!
Grace you are so inspiring! I’m so sorry that abvd didn’t work for you and that you had to go through a stem cell transplant. I I am halfway through the battle at the moment! I found a lump under my arm and was experiencing really bad night sweats. I went to the doctor and they told me it was probably just a swollen gland due to an infection and gave me antibiotics but the lump didnt go down so i went back to the doctor and they did a blood test and an ultrasound of the lump and told me it would probably be glandular fever. when i went back to get the results they confirmed it was a swollen lymph node and that my inflammatory markers in my blood were really high and then they referred me to a hematologist. that night i looked up hematology and found out that they specialise in blood cancers and then realised i had a lot of symptoms of lymphoma and was pretty much convinced then and there that i had cancer. i saw my specialist the next day, he scheduled me for surgery for the following day and a week later i was diagnosed. it was a huge shock and it all happened just before christmas. the next steps for me were to have a bone marrow biopsy, a pet scan, a heart and lung function test. thankfully my bone marrow was clear so i was staged 3b with cancer in my neck, underarm, chest and abdomin lymphnodes. i had a port surgically inserted into my chest for chemo and then went through ivf which was a very stressful time, two weeks of injections and scans and then an egg collection procedure in case chemo effects my fertility in the future (very emotional time for me). i started chemo halfway through january and have to do 12 treatments on a fortnightly basis so hopefully i will be finished in june. chemo itself is not very pleasant, im usually unwell for about 3-4 days so the rest of the fortnight is relatively normal aside from the fact that i stopped working! the main side effects for me is fatigue, taste change, nausea and bone/muscle pain. when im feeling well enough ive still been going away, going to the beach, seeing my friends and organising fundraisers to keep my spirits up but it is a difficult battle. losing my hair was really difficult for me and i still havent completely come to terms with it, sometimes it all just feels like a bad dream! but hopefully it will makw me stronger in the long run. I hope and pray that your transplant went as good as it possibly could for you and that you can put this horrible experience behind you!! You’re in my thoughts and prayers xx
Hey Brie, first of all, thanks for your comment. Secondly, my name is Lauren, I just strive for grace. 🙂 I’ve been through EXACTLY what you’re going through… all of it. If you ever have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me at graceundercancer@gmail.com .
I think you’ll get a kick out of our Hodgkins sister’s blog post on Thought Catalog because egg harvesting is certainly a ridiculously emotional thing to have to do when you find out you’re fighting for your life, isn’t it?
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/when-life-hands-you-cancer-make-eggs/
Is your bone and muscle pain from Neupogen or Neulasta? I’m actually working on a blog post about it now… I found a few things that gave me relief… One of which is actually a synthetic form of the THC found in marijuana, it’s called Marinol and you get a Rx for it. It’s just a pill. It really helped me sleep, because there are some nights where even the your sheets hurt against your skin. I would take Marinol and within 10 minutes be FAST asleep. So awesome. No side effects either, like sleeping meds have or like marijuana has. Just sweet sweet sleep. I also tried to drink lots of water and take tylenol or advil ON SCHEDULE, every 4 hours. This prevents the pain from becoming too bad.
I’ll pray for comfort for you. For your mind, body, and soul.
-xo