My name is Kim and I am 21 years old. I was "officially" diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on April 26, 2004.
My Hodgkin's journey began on April 6 when I noticed a large lump in my neck, close to my left clavicle, while sitting in class. My friend and classmate Debbie convinced me to go to my school's health center to have it looked at. I saw 2 doctors; neither could tell me what it was. The health center set up an appointment for me to have an ultrasound at a local hospital the next day.
I went to the hospital unconcerned since the lump just showed up out of nowhere. I figured nothing serious could grow that quickly. After the ultrasound, the diagnostic radiologist came into the room and told me that he was very certain that I had lymphoma, most likely Hodgkin's because of my age, and that I needed to have a biopsy of the lump as soon as possible. It was the second worst moment of my life. The worst was calling my parents and telling them.
In weeks following I had a CT Scan, surgical biopsy of the lump in my neck, bone marrow biopsy (possibly the third worst moment of my life?), and a PET scan. In the end I was diagnosed with stage 2a Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The PET scan showed cancer in my neck, chest, and left armpit lymph nodes.
At the time of my diagnosis I had 2 weeks of school left, plus
finals week. All of my professors agreed to give me grades based
on the work I had completed so far in the courses. I graduated
from Southern Methodist University on May 15, 2004 with a BS in
computer science and a math minor. As of today I have completed 3
of 12* chemo treatments.
*12 treatements later became 16 treatments.
