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READ MOREPublished on August 19, 2015 in Share Your Story
In July, 2013, I had the shock of my life when after having headaches for a few months, I was diagnosed with a golf ball size tumor in my head. Six days after the tumor was discovered, I underwent brain surgery at Johns Hopkins because the doctors were concerned that the tumor was growing quickly. A few days after I returned home, my surgeon informed me that my tumor was a Large Diffuse B-Cell Lymphoma. After several tests, it was determined that the Lymphoma was contained to my brain, and as a result, I have the diagnosis of a CNS (Central Nervous System) B-Cell Lymphoma.
6 weeks of not being able to drive and not lifting my kids (a baby and a 4 year old), and once I healed from my surgery, I immediately went to the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in August for intense, in-patient, chemo treatments every other week through November, 2013. On July 21, 2014, I completed my 17th round of in-patient chemo treatment at Hopkins!! I can’t believe I made it through, and am so thankful for the love and support from all my family and friends. Although I’m currently in remission (yippee) I still have to get scans every 4 months. As you may know, remission means there is No Evidence of visible Disease. But, it does not mean that I have been cured – so the fight goes on.
In September, 2014, I completed the Ride to Conquer Cancer’s inaugural 145 mile ride in strong fashion. I’m hoping to continue to work out and look forward to the day when I can considered to be cured. At the moment, I’m less of a cancer survivor and more of a cancer thriver!
I could not have made it this far without the support and love of my friends and family – especially, my wife Melissa. Melissa has worked extra hard to make sure our kids were well taken care of and that she was able to visit me just about every day I was in the hospital. I’d like to also say a special thank you to the staff at Weinberg 4a who took exceptional care of me. Without the knowledge of my oncology team, and the nurses at Hopkins, I would not be doing as well as I am doing today.
Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.