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Some things you can never really fully wrap your head around. I think that statement really sums up my life.
It all started when I just had a constant cough and breathing issues that would not go away for at least a year. At first I didn’t think much of it. I mean I had other complex medical conditions so maybe it was related to those. But I didn't seem to get any better and I always was coughing . So I went to see various doctors, one told me it was just acid reflux and to take pills to help calm it down, next the doctor told me it could be allergies so I saw an asthma allergist specialist. They tested me for asthma and various allergies but besides finding out I was the slightest bit allergic to rabbits (and I have 2) they didn’t find an answer. Asthma/allergist specialist referred me to a pulmonologist who gave me an inhaler and an aerobika device and told me to come back in 5 weeks. So I did, but nothing changed.
So the next step was to do a CT scan. So I did and the results came back the next day. The results were something I never would have imagined listening to. The CT scan revealed a tumor in my lung and I was referred to an oncologist who did a biopsy to confirm it was cancer. Specifically, it was: a typical carcinoid tumor in my airway. Thankfully, cancer had not spread anywhere else.
However, due to the size of the tumor and where it was located, it was not ideal to surgically remove it yet.
We had to shrink it first. I had a choice of treatment to try to shrink the tumor. Aggressive chemo or targeted therapy. None of them seem fun and none of the options had concrete evidence it would even work. The only thing I could do was hope it did. I decided to choose aggressive chemo with a port or so I thought. Until the day before my port was scheduled to be placed, I received a call from my doctors. They had talked to someone in a Texas cancer center that specializes in my type of cancer and he had a study that showed a percentage of people from the study with Everolimus had their tumor shrunk. Everolimus is an oral chemotherapy drug that can help stop cancer cells from reproducing and by decreasing the blood supply to the cancer cells. So that is why we will try oral chemotherapy - Everolimus.
So, instead of going to college, I was on a completely different adventure. The cancer journey. I started my first oral chemotherapy on August 1, 2021, and on September 28, 2021, I added a second oral chemo drug.
Not only did I have to take a year off from starting college in 2020, but I now had to take a year off in 2021. I had already gone through the process of planning to go to college once and been disappointed. Now it was happening again.
I had a variety of side effects from oral chemotherapy. One of them resulted in being so nauseous that I barely could sleep at night. I lost my sense of taste which is not fun. Food either tasted like nothing or like a block of metal. That was the same for anything I drank as well. My hair started thinning and turning gray. I definitely had a hard time adjusting, especially with the hair changes.
It is not a common type of cancer, even though it is called a typical carcinoid tumor. (also known as a neuroendocrine tumor.) I was only 19 and the average age of diagnosis is around 50 to 60 years old. The specific tumor I have only made up 1% to 2% of all lung cancers. Once again, I hit the jackpot of winning the medical diagnosis lottery.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis felt like the whole world came down to me. First, I didn’t want to believe it. This is why I didn’t join any support groups until six months after my diagnosis. I have been through other medical situations so you would think I would have a better grasp at handling news like this, but cancer is something else.
You never think it is you until it is. I never thought I would have cancer. No one can really prepare you for it. It is just a feeling that is unique in itself, just as much as the whole experience.
Cancer completely pushed me into who I am today. It transformed my way of viewing the world. It allowed me to value what truly is important in life and overlook the nonsense we occasionally get caught up in. I know that the clock never stops. We are just here for a short while and cannot change that. But, having cancer as a young adult taught me that as long as there was some fight in me, then I could move mountains. It helped me understand that it is me who defines the chances or even sometimes goes against them. I hope that my story motivates others to see the opportunities in their lives and to make something of those gifts.
This is why I choose to raise money