Lymphoma Experiences

Each person's journey with cancer is different for several reasons:

• the type of cancer one has
• the type of treatment one receive
• how one's body reacts to treatment
• the medical beliefs of the Oncologist

Breast Cancer is treated differently than Lymphoma and to make matters worse there are 70 different varieties of Lymphoma...

My Oncologist in Knoxville, TN treated me with different chemo drugs than my Oncologist in Florence, KY because they interpreted the research differently.  And, there is a high degree of probability that the chemo I was administered by my KY Oncologist made my body more susceptible to Melanoma which is what I contracted only a few years later.

Each body reacts differently to chemo so the side effects that the doctors and nurses share with you will not pertain to each person in total.  For example, one of the side effects of Rituxan is a loss of hair but I never lost my hair.  And, one of the side effects is Cytoxin is nausea and vomiting both of which I experienced to an extreme but I still did not lose my hair which is also a side effect of Cytoxin.

One has to learn and accept the fact that one MUST MANAGE one's treatment process and do as much research as you can think of before any decision is made...   Had I done my research in KY rather than rely on my Oncologist to make the decisions, I would have refused his treatment...  All I had to do was call my Oncologist in TN and ask his advice...  but, I did not think that far ahead.

NOW, I am fighting Lymphoma as well as Melanoma...