The Next Big Thing

After the diagnosis, I continued living a normal childhood.  It wasn't until I was about 11 years old when I got my first indication I was different.  My parents told me that I was not going to develop like the other girls and I wasn't going to be able to have children, and that I would need a surgery.  I didn't fully understand what that meant.  But very soon after I learned this information I was going to have yet another life changing experience.

The fall of 1991 I started the 7th grade.  Sitting in class one day, one of my classmates noticed there was a lump on my neck.  I returned home from school that day and told my mom about it.  She made a doctor's appointment, and we had it checked out.  My doctor suspected something more serious was going on, but put me on medication for Mono, and was going to run some more tests.  My doctor sent me for a biopsy, where I found out that I had cancer.  I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymph system.  For more information of Hodgkin's Lymphoma you can search for it or click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodgkins%27_disease

After being diagnosed with cancer, I had a surgery to learn what stage the cancer it was in (how much it may have spread), and then started radiation treatments.  The good news was that my cancer was caught early, but going through cancer treatments is miserable when you are in an age when you are starting at a new school and trying to fit in.  When undergoing radiation treament, they mark the body so they know where to line up the machines, and for a number of weeks, I had to walk around school with markings on my face.

I had to miss school for doctor appointments, surgery, and with walking around with markings on my face, I had really started to feel out of place with my peers.  This was at a time in adolescence when I was attending a new school, making new friends, and girlfriends were developing and getting their periods.  I felt like I didn't have much to contribute.  Plus, I was falling behind in certain classes, which added to my despair.  But after a few months and my radiation treatments had ended I was able to work on picking up the pieces again.  I knew stuff about life that most of my peers didn't, but I was ignoring it, trying to fit in.  Trying to just get by.  Trying to be "normal".