Lymphoma Case Study Essay

I chose to write an essay about the “Topic of Cancer” by Christopher Hitchens. In this short autobiographical essay, Hitchens discusses his experience with Esophageal cancer. Just one day after lanching his book “Hitch-22” Hitchens was made aware of his illness, where he later describes the news as “taking me from the country of well, to the stark frontier.” It was then he chose to write about his experience for the purpose of documenting the changes that he, and his body were about to go through with chemotherapy, and also for the purpose of contemplating his current situation. The reason that I chose this story is because of my own personal experiences that I have had with many loved ones in my life. There is one case in particular that stands out in my memory, among the rest. It was when my friend of many years discovered that he had a very rare form of brain cancer. Soon after undergoing chemotherapy, he lost his battle. There are many people that believe chemotherapy at any stage is the best, and often times, the only way to cure cancer, yet others claim that chemotherapy is not the answer at all. A close analysis of recent statistics can settle this debate.

Lymphoma or lymphatic cancer is a very serious and life threatening disease. In this country there is an estimated 63,900 new cases, 7,100 of which are Hodgkin’s lymphoma as opposed to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Since around the 70’s the occurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has almost doubled while the occurrence of Hodgkin’s disease has declined. (Steen, 1993)

Imagine going to the doctor after numerous, severe headaches. The doctor performs a CT scan that reveals a rapidly growing brain tumor. The doctor breaks down the information, reveals that the tumor is a rare form of cancer, and is inoperable. Unfortunately, the doctor also relays the life expectancy with a cancer this rare and aggressive; a few months at best and those short months will become increasingly

This has now brought us to the point of doing IVF, unfortunately this is an extremely expensive and mecically extensive procedure. I am not the type of person who enjoys asking for help and majority of the time I am driven to accomplish everything on our own but when it comes to this we can't do it alone. Dan and I have been hiding in our infertility pain and it's time we come out of the closet.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is a non-profit organization focused on finding a cure for blood cancer and providing their patients with the medical care available. For 65 years, the LLS has been an advocate for blood cancer patients, families, and survivors. In honor of September, Blood Cancer Awareness Month LLS has developed 30 “proof points”, one for each day of the month that displays the organizations success and impact towards finding a cure for blood cancer. With more than $1 billion invested in treatments and research, LLS hopes to reach their goal of $400,000 during Blood Cancer Awareness Month to continue their efforts in creating a world without blood cancer.

Everyone goes through rough patches in their life. Some of these patches are easy to accomplish and easy to get over. Our medicine has gotten better over time, but years ago the survival rate wasn’t that good. My grandma whose name is Linda is a breast cancer survivor and also survived with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Not everyone in this world can say she has have survived cancer this many times, especially with such low survival rates. My Grandma still puts a smile on everyone faces even when she’s in pain. She makes all of her children and grandchildren beautiful quilts, so we can have something to remember her by, if something were to happen. She loves to bake. There isn’t one occasion that there won’t be some type of desert made by her. She has so many beautiful talents.

Nearly 14.5 million Americans have had a history stint with some type of cancer and were still alive on January 1, 2014(American Cancer Society, 2016). There will be an estimated 1,685,210 new cancer cases and 595, 590 deaths in 2016 attibuted to caner in the U.S. (American Cancer Society,2016 ) Those astonishing numbers do not even account for the cancer patients family and friends whose lives are also affected this horrific disease. In order to get a glimpse of what a cancer patient has to go though, I decided to read Stuart Scott’s memoir, Every Day I Fight, by Larry Platt. He is an ESPN anchor that was diagnosed with a rare form of Appendiceal Cancer. It was a great book, and wanted to discuss the merits this book had on showing what

The doctor calls your house asking for you to come down to his office to talk. As you walk in, you feel your heart in your throat. As he sits the two of you down he begins, "There is a problem we need to discuss. We received your test results back." He continues by telling you that you 're having trouble conceiving because of a genetic abnormality you never even knew you had. Your mind races and your heart sinks. How is this possible? You never thought you would have to deal with not being able to have a baby one day. "There are several options you have to try and conceive without passing on the genetic abnormality…" the doctor continues to explain, but the one I would recommend first is Pre Implantation Genetic Diagnosis." You and your

Infertility is a big topic in the book One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash. This affects many charters in the story like the Sheriff and his wife. The sheriff and his wife are happily married but the moment that changed them forever was the night the sheriff’s wife woke up bleeding. The sheriff’s wife had a miscarriage and was told that she was infertile. This made them very distant from each other This is the same case with Amy and Billy but a different scenario. Billy is told that his sperm count is to low to have kids and is declared infertile. “Doctor Wilkins looked under the microscope… He finally took his eyeball off the microscope and said I can’t find a

“’So what’s your story?’” she then then replies “’I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when-‘” He interrupts and says “’No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, etcetera… Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who becomes their disease. I know so many people like that. It’s disheartening. Like cancer is in the growth business, right? The taking-people-over business. But surely you haven’t let it succeed prematurely’” (Green, 32).

Finding a panacea for cancer will be an arduous task with a very lengthy and discouraging trial and error period. Inevitably there will be some trying hurdles to get past in search of this cancer panacea, but, one that seems to be the most difficult to get passed is the severity and variety of the case presented. Doctors see this as overwhelming and very daunting since they do not want to get a patient’s hopes up if the medicine turns out not to work, or cause things to get worse. If doctors believe they have found this new and astonishing drug that cures all cancer at all stages and they prescribe it but turns out to only make the cancer worse, they will have to live knowing that they hurt all of these people and their families forever. In

“You’re doing exactly the right thing. There is no sense in worrying about things unless you have to. Maybe I can set your mind at ease a little bit. To begin with, I know that you’re both concerned about factor viii deficiency and myotonic dystrophy because of the family history. Is there anything else that you’d like to know?”

Treatments are a long process, depending on what stage you’re in will indicate how long your treatment may take.

Six years and then four months. First ALS then Glioblastoma. Rewind. A lot is missing. My story has partially been told already in this portfolio called "A Love Diagnoses." Continue. Since the time of the essay I have passed. October 17, 2016. You see, the time before I passed, I was in and out of hospitals. So much had gone wrong and doctors could not even pinpoint a cause or a solution. A hypothesis, the multiple drugs I had been on were causing my organs to fail and liquid to build up in my abdomen. These drugs, however, were showing progress of shrinking the tumor in my head. But they had to take me off the drugs because my body could not take it. Miserable. So miserable. My kids would visit me. While they were in the hospital room doctors

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is slow-progressing or “chronic”, cancer of the blood and bone marrow. CLL is the second most common leukemia in adults and one of the four primary types of leukemia. Certain risk factors have been identified including age, race, sex, family history of blood and bone marrow cancers and chemical exposure. Most people diagnosed with CLL are white males over the age of 60. Occurrence increases with age and a marked increase after 60. Herbicides, insecticides and Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War have shown to increase the risk of developing CLL. There are approximately 15,000 new cases diagnosed each year.