Angela Koenig- Calgarian, devoted wife, mother of two, Light The Night?walker- shares her family?s journey through a terrifying diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Our family at the Light The Night Walk
?On March 13th, 2010 I got the phone call that would change our life forever. It was Bob calling to let me know that they found a melon size tumor in his stomach?
What do you do with this information? Well I guess you do what I did and fall to the floor, sobbing and thinking the worst. You try to keep your mind focused on the positive, but that was very hard for me. We found out that the tumor was attached to his stomach, pancreas and duodenum. Not knowing if it was cancer or not was the worst part. Waiting and waiting to find out caused me many nights of sleep lost.
Thoughts of pancreatic cancer ran through my mind and the thought of loosing my husband within 3-6 months was all I could think about. Finally after 5 days we were told lymphoma.
?WHAT?? I said, ?what in the world is that??. I had never heard of it, so google here I come. With more and more new information to process, and in between IV?s, blood work, biospys, feeding tubes, suction tubes, we took it day by day and just went with it hoping for the best possible outcome.
Shaving Bob?s head
Finally on March 22nd, Bob experienced something he never thought he would have to?.chemo. RCHOP was the chemo of choice, and he came out of it with flying colors. A few minor side effects, but all in all a good out come.
On April 10th Bob?s hair started to fall out, so on a beautiful sunny afternoon we sat out in the backyard and my sister and daughter shaved his head! He took it like a super hero, just like he has everything else that?s come his way. ?April 12th was round 2 of chemo as an out-patient in the hospital. We went in with a smile on our face and Bob in his Superman shirt?
This was the story almost 2 years ago! Since that time, Bob has now finished all his treatments and is in REMISSION! He still continues to have check ups every 3 months, but we are thinking that soon he will be bumped to every 6 moths for the next 3 years.
Light The Night is very important to our family, it?s something we enjoy doing very much. During Bob?s treatment, I was out picking up dinner and saw a pamphlet in a take-out place and signed up that night.
I raised over $17,000 the first year we did the walk and just over $15,000 for lasts year walk. I have another goal of $10,000 this year, so here?s hoping!
We not only walk to celebrate Bob?s remission, but we also walk to celebrate the lives of 2 others. Two of my very close friends each lost a parent, one to myeloma and the other to leukemia. So we walk in memory for them and to celebrate their lives.
It?s hard to believe that it?s been over 2 years now since we had our life forever changed. I don?t look at it as a bad thing, it?s just a new path that we had to take and it?s forever a part of our life. Non-hodgkin?s lymphoma was something we had ever heard of before, and now I make sure to let as many people as I can know about blood cancers and what they can do to help.?
Source: http://llscanada.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/celebrating-remission-with-light-the-night/
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