Lymphoma Awareness Month: September!!

September is Lymphoma Awareness month.  I know with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month coming up, it is a big push for pink. But there are so many other cancers out there and I wanted to help bring awareness to Lymphoma.  This is personal for me because I am a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor!  Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are part of the body’s immune system.  I am 4 year in remission this month!  I was diagnosed just after my 29th birthday…happy birthday to me  I went through 5 months of chemotherapy every other week lasting 3 hours each session.  It was probably one of the worst times in my life, wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through that….no one!  What got me through was a fantastic support system in my family and friends.  I tried to keep  a positive attitude and never felt sorry for myself or had the “why me” moment.  Needless to say there weren’t moments of breakdowns (i.e. when I lost all my hair or had hospitalized for severe anemia), I just never dwelled on it and tried moved on.  

Cancer changes you, makes you really re-evaluate your life and how you were living it.  I had a lot of time to think during my infusion sessions and decided to set goals with things I actually wanted to do in the future.  I did this to have something to look forward to, to set my mind on something else besides being sick.  Which is why I went to culinary school…I always wanted to do it, so I did.  I planned and I planned and started bringing the culinary course catalog to my chemo sessions and couldn’t wait to start.  I had those course descriptions memorized by the time I finished chemo.

Cancer also made me not want to dwell on the bad in life, but move on from it.  Bad things happen; they happen too many, but how you deal with it….your actions is what shows what type of person you are.  So I try to stay positive.  People do tell me that I’m too happy, too nice, too willing to overlook others behavior, too non-confrontational, or I’m too sympathetic.  So what!! I use to let every little thing bother me and I was unhappy. But you know what… life’s too short to be like that.  I want to live in the light, not in the dark.  I want to enjoy every minute of life I have because in all honestly I don’t know how long I have left.  There is this fear in the back of my mind that I will probably get cancer again; it’s a fear that will never go away.  And it’s that fear that drives my every minute of every day.  It is what changed me and my perspective on life. 

We all know someone who has been affected by cancer.  And that a scary though that is it so prevalent in our society now-a-days.  So many types of cancers out there, they all need to be acknowledged!!

Here are some websites for you information regarding cancer:
http://www.cancer.org/index
http://www.stupidcancer.org/
http://www.lls.org/

Here are some personal pictures of me:

My sister and me.  This is the day she shaved my head.  It was a very emotional day for the both of us.  My hair was falling out like crazy, so I called her up and she came over and did it.  My sister Cindy is one of the best people I know.  She took care of me during this rough time in my life along with my parents and I will be grateful for life!

This was 2014, my last semester in culinary school.  I'm the one in the middle (look at my hair now!).  This was an award ceremony for my team...we won a competition. Going to culinary school was one of the best decisions of my life!