Cancer friends...

I'm sorry if my blog is sounding very "churchy" lately. Maybe I'm not sorry... I'm just in a time in my life where I really feel my Heavenly Father's arms wrapped around me and I can see his hand so vividly in my life and I want to talk about it.

In the weeks and months before I found out I had Hodgkin's I found two girls who also are going through Hodgkin's right now. It has been a huge blessing for me to read their stories and how they have handled this illness...

Meet Amy. I found Amy's blog in the beginning of July, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. That was a whole month before I ever found the lump in my neck. I stumbled across her blog and bookmarked it like any good blog stalker would do. I kept checking in on her because it's just insane for a 24 year old beautiful, healthy girl to get cancer!!! Amy had symptoms of her cancer for a long time before she was able to get an accurate diagnosis and was a stage IIIb when she was diagnosed. She had her spleen removed and is going through the same ABVD treatment that I'm now doing. She is a fighter through and through. She is such a great example to me.



Then came Lena. I will never forget the night I found Lena's blog. My good friend Selkie had blogged about her friend who had cancer. So the night of Trent's 30th birthday I was home bored out of my mind. Tru was asleep and I had a few days before I had to get my first ct scan to see what this lump was about. I decided to check out Selkie's friends blog, mainly because I was wondering what type of cancer she had. I read through her entire blog until the point where she said she had been diagnosed with lymphoma. She said that she went to the doctor because she had a some lumps in her neck above her collar bone. I'm pretty sure that my heart stopped beating at that point. Lena and I have very similar stories. We found our cancer through enlarged lymph nodes in our necks and were in stage IIa when our cancer was found. That was the night that it really hit me that I probably had cancer. I think it's safe to say that night makes it in the top 3 worst nights/days of my life ;). Lena has also been an incredible example to me.




I didn't write to either of these girls until I had been officially diagnosed, but I read there stories and tried to get as much information about this cancer as I could. I really feel like Heavenly Father knew that I would need to be prepared for this news, really prepared. I was already at the bottom of the barrel and he knew that I would need some good support.



These two girls have been such a huge source of inspiration to me. They have handled this trial of cancer with such great faith and courage. They have given me so much strength and knowledge, and I have felt so prepared going into this which I am so grateful for. I have written them both extremely long e-mails (multiple long e-mails!!!) and they have not hesitated to help answer my questions, calm my fears, give me reassurance that this will be okay. I'm so grateful to have these girls in my life.



Nothing has been a surprise for me. I feel like I have been two steps ahead as to what to expect and what is coming my way. I can't even express how grateful I am that these girls have reached out to a total stranger to help me. Thank you Amy and Lena so much!!!

I'm also happy to report that they are both doing FANTASTIC!!! with their treatments. They have both been doing the ABVD treatments like I'm doing and Lena just had her last treatment, and Amy will finish up in December. They are both in remission!!!



Anyway... I just wanted to give a little shout out to my cancer friends!! Thank you so much for all of your support. In the midst of your own battles you have reached out to help me and I will be eternally grateful for that! I've since met some other girls who are going through cancer... young girls battling this disease. It's no fun, but it's been good to talk to some other people who understand what I'm going through, what I'm going to be going through.