One Week

        One week ago today I found out that I have Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and since that week so much has happened. The first thing I did was cry. I don't know if I was crying because I was sad, or more because I was scared and didn't really know what Hodgkin's meant for me. I also cried because my parents were crying, and seeing them upset makes me upset.
        A lot of my Friday consisted of telling people...of course there was lots of fun watching "Suits" with my dad, visiting the Strayer home, and going to Coffee house (a friday night activity at my youth group). I went to my school, Lawrence North High School, to tell my counselor; I talked with Sarah while I was at the school; my mom went into Dairy Queen and told a manager (yep, my job is working with ice cream!); my mom, my dad, and I told my brother and sister; I Facetimed my friends Jaema and Alicia; I told Claire Strayer when I went to her house to hang with friends...I then told all of those friends (Clara, Hannah, Bradley, and Elija); and at coffee house I told Yanny, Becky, Austin, and Matt (my youth pastor)...some other people also found by either over hearing or hearing from someone I told.
       So at this point I've told family (with the help of my parents), friends, my youth pastor, other adults in my life, and a manager...seems like a lot and it felt like a lot, but what I didn't realize is how many people I'm in contact with daily and how many people were left to tell.
     ***side note: Through telling people I saw how many people really care about me and love me,
      Now, Saturday my mom told some neighbors, I went to the neighborhood cookout for a bit, and I then went to work and told my general manager Carl. Work was hard because my neck was still very stiff from the surgery I had on that previous Tuesday.
    ***back story: On Tuesday the 13th I have a biopsy done on my neck. They took 6-7 lymph nodes out of my neck to check for Hodgkin's. I will explain the whole discovery leading up to the surgery and more details on the surgery on the next post.
      Those were just the first TWO days of my journey. So much has happened and so much will happen.

I will be continuing to go back and talk about the rest of my first week, but for the rest of this post I will just talk about today.

       Today was a long day. I got up early and went to RadicaLN. RadicaLN is a group that meets on Friday mornings, and the purpose is to see LN as our mission field. We discuss passages in the bible, are given guidance on how we can lead a bible study, pray together, share trials and triumphs, and (hopefully in the near future) worship together. While there this morning I share that a real trial this week had been all of my tests (for the lymphoma). This led to why I was having test and eventually me sharing with the whole group about my Hodgkin's. It was so nice when Chris had us take a moment to pray from me; I really appreciated it (thanks Claire, Julia, and Chris).
        After RadicaLN I headed over to the school, with Claire in my passengers seat. Once there I noticed that my oncologist Dr. Morgan (cool coincidence right?!) had called me, though she left a message and she was really wanting to talk to my mom. So I called her back to tell her that she had called me and not my mom. She called me back during my Etymology class, and my teacher Mrs. Campbell let me take the call. Here's what I learned:
1. I am stage 2.
2. I will be starting Chemotherapy Thursday.
3. The PET/CT scan showed a little activity in my chest and right neck lymph nodes (in addition to the left side of my neck, but we already knew about that area)
4. My port will need to be put in soon.
5. I may not need radiation after Chemo.
6. I will have from 4-6 cycles of Chemo. One cycle is a full day of chemo and then two weeks and then another full day and two weeks.
7. After two cycles (basically two months), I will have another PET/CT scan to see where I'm at to determine if it will be 2 or 4 more cycles.
        Now of course this information needed to be relayed to people who were curious about my treatment plan and what not, so I texted and told some people, but didn't get around to everyone.
        Today I also went to the LN vs. LC football game. It was tons of fun, though it made me really miss marching band when I saw them all performing at half time. The first half I stood by Camille, Brooklyn, and Pascal (spelling is unclear because he is a foreign exchange student from Germany, so I don't know how to spell his name...sorry). I met up with the band after they performed and hung out with them the rest of the game. I mostly hung with Aaron, Jaema, Alicia, and Kiara. At this game I also ended up telling my friend Nolan. Nolan is so sweet and tenderhearted and my news saddened him (which is totally normal). Now my timing should have been better...I thought he knew, but he didn't. So Nolan was pretty upset the rest of the game, which made me sad. I don't want to ruin people's nights. We talked after the game though and so I hope he's happier now.
       
         So this is my first blog post ever...I will try to get better as I go. Sorry if it's rambling or uninteresting :) I will post more tomorrow on this past week and also an explanation for my blog title. For now good bye and God bless.

Psalm 94: 18-19:

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.