Search Results
Mike
It started with a cough that would not go away. A cough so bad that it would stop him in his tracks and he'd have to rest afterwards for a few minutes just to catch his breath and regain strength. This was in March 2016. My husband, Mike, was like any other 31 year old "healthy" person. He figured the cough was allergies or a stubborn cold. He finally agreed to go to urgent care because of course he didn't have a primary doctor. The doctors had the same thoughts: allergies or a stubborn cold. They treated him for these things and none of them helped.
Paul
My husband's story began in July 2018, when he suddenly became ill. I rushed him to the ER. The shocking diagnosis, multiple myeloma. Three weeks prior to his hospitalization he had a physical with blood work, all was normal.
Tricia
My story is truly about the little family that could. In 2002, I felt I had it all: a loving partner, a new job offer, and plans to start a family. Upon my return from a business trip in May, that feeling shifted as a large lump appeared on the side of my neck. Several doctor visits, tests, and sleepless nights later, I received a phone call on the way to a meeting from a doctor. He asked me to pull the car over. He told me I had cancer. Everything stopped.
Steven
My name is Steve. My purpose is to give others hope and the possibility of tomorrows. I am a leukemia survivor, specifically myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Today, one year after my bone marrow transplant, I am 100% cancer-free!
Predisposing factors to leukemia
Table of contents:
Rick
Rick Ostroff and his family have a legacy of philanthropy with a heartfelt connection to a disease he never had. During the first three years of his life, he spent time on the leukemia floor of Children’s Hospital in Boston but eventually was found to have the critical illness of gamma globulin anemia rather than then-fatal leukemia.
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.
Treatment
In general, the goal of treatment is to destroy as many lymphoma cells as possible and to induce a complete remission. Complete remission means that all evidence of disease is eliminated. Patients who go into remission are sometimes cured of their disease. Treatment can also keep non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in check for many years, even though imaging or other studies show remaining sites of disease. This situation may be referred to as a “partial remission.”
Central Nervous System (CNS) Lymphoma
General InformationCentral nervous system lymphoma is a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma in which malignant (cancer) cells from lymph tissue form in the brain and/or spinal cord (primary CNS) or spread from other parts of the body to the brain and/or spinal cord (secondary CNS). Because the eye is so close to the brain, primary CNS lymphoma can also start in the eye (called ocular lymphoma). The cancer can also involve the spinal fluid that bathes the spinal cord and brain. This is called leptomeningeal lymphoma. Both primary and secondary CNS lymphomas are rare diseases.
What Is Blood Cancer?
Reviewed by Gwen Nichols, MD, EVP and Chief Medical Officer at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Nicolasa
The first time I heard of Team In Training (TNT) and raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) was when my friend and I wanted to run the Nike Women's Half in D.C. We filled out the application and got accepted and started raising money, not having a clue about where this path was going to lead us. It was at that time that I began to realize the impact leukemia and lymphoma have had on my family and friends, whether they or a loved one had gone through treatment. I wrote all of their names on my singlet and carried them with me along that course.
Yesenia
My name is Yesenia and this is my story. I began my first semester of university in fall 2017. While I was away for college I started experiencing some symptoms. It started off with nausea, after the first couple weeks of fall semester I would experience this sensation that left me bed ridden. This led me to go back to my family home so I could be better taken care of. I knew at that point that something wasn't right, so I took a trip to Urgent Care where I was told I was Anemic, but with a better diet I would go back to normal.
Barbara
While enjoying a 2021 spring vacation with my husband in Kentucky, I began to feel severe pain in my right arm. Over several hours, the pain increased, but I didn’t want to interrupt our vacation plans with a hospital visit. By late evening, my husband could tell that we must get to an emergency room PRONTO! But where in this large city can we find one? We finally stopped at a Home Depot store and asked for directions. After searching on darkened streets in a strange city, we found the emergency entrance to a hospital.
Yeah!
Complications of CLL or CLL Treatment
InfectionPeople with CLL are more likely to get infections.
Jonathan
Life is such a blessing. Sometimes we think that there’s no way out, we limit ourselves, or we simply think to give up. Truth is, like we say in my family, “Solo hay que estar vivo para ver cosa,” or “You only have to be alive to witness things.”
My parents are first-generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. I am a cancer survivor.
Nina
Back in March 2015, my then 26-year-old daughter was not feeling well. She had severe abdominal pain, overwhelming fatigue, night sweats, a low-grade fever, a headache, and appeared to be losing weight. At the time, my daughter was working as a speech language pathologist in a hospital in Maryland. She was misdiagnosed by an ER droctor and two months later, after her primary care doctor ordered an ultrasound, we found that she had innumerable tumors in her lungs and spleen. We saw an oncologist the next day who ordered more blood work and a PET scan, as well as a bon
Diana
My introduction to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) began in the early 2000s. I joined a Light The Night Team to support research and programs for cancer patients. I then discovered Team In Training and ran my first marathon and my second as a Team Mentor. At the time, I knew cancer was a terrible disease, but it wasn’t until 2012 that cancer became more personal. In May 2012, my cousin Richard, who was like an older brother to me, passed away from pancreatic cancer. Just two years later, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Babette
My journey with multiple myeloma (MM) began at 42.
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.
Dave
It all started for me the day our first child turned two months old. She was extremely colicky, and we would spend hours every night trying to get her to sleep. This particular night, I bounced on our exercise ball to try to get her down, and that caused some extremely bad back pain. I could tell something was seriously wrong. When I woke up the following day, the pain was significantly worse, and there was no way that I could even work.
Rachel
My name is Rachel Iruegas, and on June 4, 2019, I heard the dreaded words that no one ever wants to hear: “you have cancer.” I was diagnosed with stage 2B Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). In that moment, my mind went blank and my body numb. I honestly do not remember much of what my oncologist said after that. I knew I was in the room with her, surrounded by my family, but my body wanted to be somewhere else – anywhere else but there. I knew in that moment that my life was going to completely change, and I had no way of stopping that.
Mike
My personal story with blood cancer started in 2020 but nobody really knew how long it was brewing. A day came when back spasms started raging and my Primary Care Physician (PCP) sent me to physical therapy (PT). It didn’t take more than 1 visit to PT to know that was a bust and finally my PCP sent me to the Hematologist. This is where my blood cancer story becomes reality, in no more than 5 minutes, the Hematologist sent me directly to the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Maggie
When I was 8 years old, I was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). I shocked the doctors with how I was still alive because I had a mass the size of a grapefruit on my lungs and masses all over my other vital organs. When I was admitted to the hospital, they got chemo going everywhere they possibly could ― in my port, my arm, my foot. I was then put into a medically induced coma for about two weeks before waking up. After a while in the ICU, I was sent down to the main floor for hematology/oncology.