Search Results

Andres

I want to start off by saying that my husband is amazing. My father passed away suddenly in September 2023, and my husband was my rock. He does/did everything he could to help me through my grief and still does. My husband had been complaining that he felt like something was stuck in his throat, but he would clear his throat, and it would go away. The week before Thanksgiving 2023, my husband was watching a funny video on YouTube and laughed so hard he couldn't catch his breath. He leaned forward trying to catch his breath but cut off his airway and collapsed face forward onto the floor.

Supportive Care

Treatment given to relieve the symptoms of a disease and the treatment’s side effects is known as supportive care. The goal of supportive care is to improve the patient’s quality of life and to relieve discomfort as much as possible. Supportive care is an important part of MDS treatment.

Stem Cell Transplantation

Blood stem cells are produced in the marrow of the bones and can become any kind of blood cell the body needs. Stem cells are constantly dividing and maturing into different types of blood cells, replacing older and worn-out blood cells in the body. They produce billions of new blood cells every day. If the stem cells cannot make enough new blood cells, many serious health problems can occur. These problems may include infections, anemia or bleeding.

Low Blood Counts

Cancer therapy can lower your blood cell counts and chemotherapy especially can affect rapidly dividing bone marrow cells. This hinders the marrow's ability to supply new cells to the blood during treatment and for some time after. Patients receiving treatment for blood cancer can develop

Integrative Medicine and Complementary Therapies

Integrative medicine (IM) is a form of medical therapy that combines practices and treatments from complementary medicine (yoga, acupuncture and massage) with conventional medicine (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and immunotherapy). Many cancer patients are using integrative medicine (IM) to help ease their cancer symptoms and reduce the side effects of cancer treatment. By integrating complementary therapies into conventional treatment plans, healthcare providers are better able to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their patients.

Family Planning Options

Many patients will be able to conceive naturally after cancer treatment. Patients are generally counseled to wait at least 2 years after treatment is completed before attempting conception. Check with your doctor to find out how long after treatment you should wait. If you are not able to conceive naturally, there are a number of other ways to build a family.

Amy

In December 2015, our son, William, started complaining of leg/knee pain. William had always been an active boy, so we figured that he must have just hurt himself doing something physical. After a few days of the pain continuing, my husband thought that maybe it was “growing pains.” We continued to keep an eye on it but weren’t too concerned at this point. By the end of the week, I called our pediatrician for an appointment. William had an exam and bloodwork done. He was also given antibiotics.

Halley

My story with cancer began long before I was diagnosed this year at 33. When I was 4 years old, my 18-month-old sister, Hannah, became too tired to play with me. As a child, I didn’t know what was going on, but something seemed wrong. My mom started taking her to doctor after doctor to find out what was happening. It wasn’t until we visited my grandmother in Florida that she had to go to the ER, and our family got the concerning news that she may have cancer.

Amanda

My name is Amanda, and I am a stage 4b classical multicellularity Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) survivor. It all started after spring break of my junior year of high school. I was on a ski trip when I noticed my feet were more itchy than normal. I figured it was from the boots. After coming home and realizing it had gotten worse, we went to the pediatrician. She looked at the bruises and scratch marks on my legs and diagnosed me with scabies. I did the whole treatment for that, and obviously, it didn’t work. A week or two later. we went back and had some basic bloodwork done.

Heriberto

I was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma (BL) on Friday the 13th ― August 13, 2021, to be exact ― seven months after being married, three months after my wedding reception, and going on my honeymoon.

Brandi

My concerns began to rise when I noticed some spotting/bleeding between cycles that would last for 10 minutes or less. Additionally, I also started to experience slight abdominal cramps first thing in the morning. I’ve always been a deep sleeper and rarely woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That escalated to me waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to try to use the restroom, sometimes without cramps and other times with extreme abdominal cramps.

Kaitlin

I moved to Chicago in May 2022. I had recently finished my joint PhD in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan and was offered a job as a People Analytics Researcher at Google. I loved the city and enjoyed frequent runs and cycling rides along Lake Shore Drive. In mid-July, I started noticing some symptoms that concerned me ― difficulty breathing when I was exercising, intense chest and back pain, spider veins on my chest, puffiness in my face, and fatigue.

Graham

In the fall of 2008 my wife and I got married. Shortly after returning from our honeymoon, I began developing pains and weakness in my joints. This continued through the holidays and I sought medical attention when the pain in my shoulders and hips became unbearable. After inconclusive X-rays and unsuccessful Cortisone shots, I began developing a pain in my abdomen around Christmas. The joint pains I wrote off as working out too hard and the abdomen pain I concluded was an ulcer.

Erika

I am a 36-year-old cancer survivor. In February 2014, I found a suspect lump and had become unusually tired. I was a career-driven single mother of a very active 10-year-old boy, so when I say unusually tired it was time to call the doctor. Within days I was thrown into the crazy and often times confusing world of hospital appointments and insurance company battles for various procedures and surgical biopsies. We became pros at the waiting game.

Skylar

As a parent, there are few words that can knock you on your feet. “Your child has cancer” is one of those phrases that can make you fall apart in an instant.

Renee

I was a senior in high school preparing to graduate. I had summer plans to work at my youth group camp and endless ideas for my future. That all came crashing down on May 27, 2002, when I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML is a rare and rapidly growing cancer of the bone marrow that destroys the production of normal blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. At the time of my diagnosis, my family was given devastating odds that only a miracle could fix. I was so dangerously sick that I needed multiple transfusions immediately, and that was just the beginning.

Carly

November 25, 2022 ― the worst day of my life, the day I received my official cancer diagnosis, stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma (HL).

Leading up to this day, I was always a healthy, active young lady. I was 23 years old and eager to start this next phase in life. Exciting things were happening. We were fairly new homeowners, I had just changed jobs/occupations, and I married the love of my life in October.

James

My story starts like everyone else’s. I was living my life, working every day, and coming home to my four children and my wife. But my wife and I started to notice how tired I was becoming. I would always sleep. I could just be waking up, and by the time I got ready for work, I was passing out in my chair. When I got a lunch break, I would sleep in my truck. I would always feel like I couldn’t get enough to drink; I was always thirsty. I barely ate anything, and I was getting fevers and the shakes. I could be hot and sweating, but I would be cold and shaking if that makes any sense.

Paul

I was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at age 25 and since then I've had two bone marrow transplants and CAR-T. For the past 8 years I have been on and off "healthy" and undergoing or actively recovering from treatment. I talked about some of the things I did during those treatments to help my motivation and morale, but there is a lot about the treatments themselves that were unique to someone like me, a mixed race, young adult with blood cancer.

NHL Staging

Once your doctor confirms an NHL diagnosis, he or she will determine the extent of your disease's progression by staging. Staging helps your doctor predict the disease's progression and develop a treatment plan.

Imaging Tests

Your doctor conducts one or more imaging tests along with a physical exam, to evaluate:

Treatment

There is not one treatment that is effective for all myelofibrosis (MF) patients. Patients have varying symptoms and circumstances that require different treatment options. Some MF patients remain symptom-free for many years and do not require immediate treatment. All MF patients, however, need to be closely monitored.

Diagnosis

While certain signs and symptoms may indicate that a person has PV, a series of tests are needed to confirm the diagnosis. It is important to have an accurate diagnosis, as it helps the doctor to: 

• Estimate how the disease will progress
• Determine the appropriate treatment

Evaluation of an individual with suspected PV should start with a detailed medical history and a physical examination.

The medical history should include information about the patient’s:

Methods to Administer Drugs

Chemotherapy and other drugs are often given in combination with each other and can be given in different ways. The method of administering the drug is based on the actual disease diagnosed and the agent's effectiveness. Common methods include:

Madeleine

We were lucky. It seems strange to frame it that way, but it's true.

James

I was diagnosed with stage 3 follicular lymphoma (FL), a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), at the end of 2017, and our world was turned upside down. I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle, stayed active, and ate well. I never thought I would be diagnosed with cancer until I received the phone call from my hematologist/oncologist late on a Friday night. My body went numb as I listened to the diagnosis and the aggressive treatment plan around the corner.