Search Results

Katie

Twenty years ago I did two things that shaped my life.

Lauren

In the fall of 2022, my cousin lost her battle with leukemia. She was the most lovely (a word that makes me think of her) and kind person, and at the memorial service, Kate's sister said Kate had said, "There is nothing better than to be young and to run." This sentiment stuck with me for a long time as I am also a runner, and I started thinking about how I could honor her in my own way. The family had directed those who wished to donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), so I researched and discovered Team In Training (TNT).

Georgia

On August 18, 2021, after months of complaining about severe knee pain, I was diagnosed with mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL). I was 16 at the time of my diagnosis and was supposed to be starting my junior year of high school that same day. (It was the first time everyone went back to school since COVID). The diagnosis was unexpected, and I started treatment right away at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Since COVID was still around, I was unable to see anybody other than my parents. It was a very scary, lonely time.

Julian

I was a 10-year-old kid when I was diagnosed with leukemia. I was a happy, energetic kid who loved being outside and was a straight-A student. However, my whole childhood was put on hold indefinitely once I had cancer. Rather than having sleepovers at my friend’s houses, I was sleeping over at the hospital. It was hard to lose my energy, smile, confidence, and hair as treatment took over my life. It was really hard to understand as I was just a kid getting injections, procedures, chemotherapy, and surgery without truly understanding why.

Jimmy

My journey with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) began in the summer of 2020. My 17-year-old, two-sport athlete son Jimmy came to me complaining that he had pulled a muscle in his neck lifting weights for football and baseball. However, after many doctors’ appointments and tests, on June 12, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, I received a call that his biopsy was indeed cancer, stage 3 advanced Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). I now had to tell my 17-year-old son that his worst fear was now a reality.

Elisa

I was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in April 2022 at 27 years old. After months of debilitating symptoms and a week-long hospital stay, I finally had an answer as to what was going on with my body. I was relieved to have an answer, but "cancer" was the last thing I expected. Ironically, after my diagnosis and first chemotherapy infusion, I felt better than I had in months. I didn't feel like I had cancer; the only reminders were a few enlarged lymph nodes and the mediport protruding from the right side of my chest. 

Rylie

My name is Rylie York, I am 20 years old and I'm currently a sophomore at Baylor University. I'm originally from Round Rock, Texas and I am a patient at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 18 in the middle of my senior year of high school. I have relapsed twice since then and completed my bone marrow transplant this past August and September.

Laraine

November 21st is Family Volunteer Day.  The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) encourages you to volunteer as a family today. Whatever you choose to do, do it together. Some ideas include: take a few minutes to call a friend, neighbor or colleague; cook a meal together and drop it at the doorstep of someone in need; rake a neighbor’s yard or put a book in a neighborhood lending library.

To honor this day, we are sharing the story about a family faced with a cancer diagnosis, who banded together when the future seemed so unclear.

Will

I am a cancer mom. I WAS a cancer mom. My youngest son, Will, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at age 19 in April of 2019. He, his dad, and I were beyond shocked when we heard the news that the swollen lymph nodes that came up out of the blue one March morning were indeed HL. We didn't really know anybody personally that had it. We didn't know what exactly all the words meant at that moment in time, but we knew it wasn't what we had planned for our youngest son.

Amy

It was July 2014, I got up and went for a quick morning jog before work. It’s Iowa, it was hot and humid, but I was unusually winded after that jog. I figured it was due to being humid outside and finished getting ready to go to work (I was a registered nurse at a physician’s clinic doing triage). During the day, I continued to feel a little winded and noticed I had a cramp in my calf. The nurse in me said to ignore it, that I was overreacting, but I decided to call my physician. She directed me to my local ER for fear of a blood clot.

Caregiving During Treatment

During and after cancer treatment, your loved one may find life at home becomes increasingly challenging. If  your loved one is experiencing mobility issues, peripheral neuropathy, pain or weakness after treatment, the following changes to the home may make life easier and safer for your loved one:

Relapsed and Refractory

Relapsed CLL is the term for disease that returns after it has been in remission for more than six months. 

Refractory disease is the term for CLL that does not result in remission after initial therapy. 

Relapsed and Refractory

Some patients still have leukemia cells in their bone marrow after hairy cell leukemia treatment. This is called refractory leukemia. Some patients have a return of leukemia cells in the marrow and a decrease in normal blood cells after remission. This is called a relapse.

Drug therapy that can be used to treat relapsed or refractory HCL includes:

MDS Subtypes

There are several kinds (subtypes) of MDS. The subtype is determined from the results of the blood and bone marrow tests.

The current WHO classification guidelines identify six subtypes.The current WHO classification guidelines, which were updated in 2022, groups MDS based on genetic abnormalities and morphologically defined features (the appearance and number of the cells under a microscope).

The subtypes are determined by the following:

Signs and Symptoms

Polycythemia vera (PV) develops slowly, and it may not cause symptoms for many years. The condition is often diagnosed during a routine blood test before severe symptoms occur. 

Symptoms may include:

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a drug therapy that stimulates the immune system. Interferon, a type of immunotherapy, is a substance made naturally by the immune system, but it can also be made in the laboratory. Interferon reduces the growth and division of cancer cells.

Bonnie

I went to the ER with chest pain in March of 2013 when my doctor saw a spot in my CAT scan the size of an orange. A few days later, I had a biopsy and it came back as stage 3 large B-cell lymphoma.

Since I was only 29, he thought I would be strong enough to take the treatments so he planned to hit me with everything he had. Within a few days, I had a mediport in on the left side of my chest because the spot was on the right but the cancer was so aggressive it had already spread across my entire left side.

Joan

What a beautiful wedding, a beautiful bride, and a handsome groom. Love was in the air. For 10 weeks this lovely couple lived in their honeymoon state of mind. They had been blessed with the ability to buy a small condo that they filled with dreams and aspirations of what was to come. Miranda was her name. She was physically very petite but oversized in her desire to be the best wife ever to Joe. Her long, dark hair emphasized those large, dark eyes and creamy clear skin. Ten weeks later, the diagnosis was leukemia. She took it as her personal challenge to do what she must to survive.

David

My beloved husband, David served the community of Arlington, Texas, through the fire department for 38 years. Throughout his career, he served the city and trained and mentored other up-and-coming firefighters. He retired in 2017, and just nine months later, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a very aggressive blood cancer. His oncologists believe it had simmered in David's marrow for a couple of years before it went acute. It came on with similar symptoms to the common flu. 

Amber

On November 22, 2013, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). There was no sign that anything was wrong until I went in for routine blood work. My platelet count, which should have been in the 150,000 to 400,000 mcL range, was over a million. After a bone marrow biopsy, my oncologist discovered that I had Philadelphia chromosome–positive CML.

My diagnosis opened my eyes to just how much has been accomplished in the fight against cancer.

Savanna

Hi! My name is Savanna. I am 20 years old, and I am a 2x Hodgkin lymphoma survivor. After being sick for nearly a year and half my freshman year at college, I was unfavorably diagnosed, Stage IV in November 2017.

I had every symptom in the book. I saw every doctor imaginable, but still wasn’t given a diagnosis. So, I became my own advocate, and took myself to walk-in clinics and ERs until I had an answer.

Chrissy

My name is Chrissy, approx. a year ago I had kidney stones and went to hospital for treatment. They sent me for scans and the CT scan showed a spot/mass on my spleen. Being that size it was at that time doctors told me to leave it be. But either a higher power that be or my body truly speaking out, this past Jan came and I had more kidney stones , same thing went to same hospital same radiology place , but this time things change so drastically. They told me the mass is solid and suspicious and more than doubled in size in less then a year.

Brian

Brian was diagnosed with a rare form of Burkett’s related, high-grade B-cell lymphoma in May 2019. He currently receives both in-patient and out-patient chemotherapy, with cycles where he receives chemo for seven days in a row 24 hours a day. Between these cycles he has anywhere from 2-3 weeks off, though he still travels to the hospital for appointments three times a week (blood transfusions, blood work, IV’s, spinal taps etc.).

Emily

One night in August 2017, I had sudden and extreme back pain. My husband took me to the hospital where they told me I was fine and sent me home. Three other hospitals later, they finally did blood work and diagnosed me with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I was only 26 years old at the time and otherwise very healthy.

I did not fully understand the severity of the situation and asked the doctor if I would be back to work the following week. I started my first round of chemo within 24 hours of diagnosis. However, my leukemia was resistant to the induction therapy.

Jim & Leslie

Jim and Leslie Donigan have been married for almost 50 years. Currently retired with three adult children, they have both faced a cancer diagnosis, but are in remission today.

In October of 2003, Leslie was diagnosed with a stomach cancer called GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors) and was told it was terminal. But then her doctor tried a medication intended for blood cancer—and it worked.