First Timer

So today is my first time posting a blog. Yeah for me! Yet a little scary at the same time...I have wanted to start a blog for awhile now, just haven't really had the time to do it I guess.  Until now!  This is going to be a blog about everything that is happening in Jonathan and I's life, just a way to keep in touch with family and friends that we don't get to see or talk to all that much.  As a lot of people know already, I was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Mediastinum B-Cell Lymphoma.  Yes, I have the big ugly "C" word (cancer).  What's even worse was that I went to the hospital because of symptoms on my 28th Birthday!  You can't imagine what it's like being told you have a large mass in your chest on your birthday of all days.  Not that any other day would be any better to have someone tell you that!  Monday (June 4th) was my first day of Chemo treatment.  It was a long and exhausting day.  Who knew sitting in a chair for 7 hours while drugs are being pumped into you, would be so tiring (all the people that have gone through this I'm sure).  The nurse just said, "yes it's hard work killing cancer cells!" She was definitely right about that.

My oncologist said that the largest diameter of the mass is 8cm.  That is massive for a tiny person like me to have sitting in my chest.  I am considered a Stage 2 because it is located in both halves of my chest basically.  The whole size of the tumor is about the size of an orange or the size of Jonathan's fist.  When I originally went to the hospital I went in because the doctors kept telling me I just had allergies (coughing a lot and really flemmy).  Along with those symptoms though came getting tired and having a racing heart just walking around and up stairs and being really clammy and just plain sick feeling.  So I decided to go to the ER to find out if it really was just "allergies."  That's when a bunch of tests were run and the mass was found.  I ended up staying in the hospital for a week after that.  I have had so many tests and procedures done on me that I would have never guessed I would go through ever especially only at 28! They say this type of cancer can be common for young women though.  Lymphoma is a cancer that they don't really know how people get it.  It's not really genetic and won't necessarily be passed on to future generations of little Carly and Jonathan's, if we are able to have little Nelson's later on in life.  It could be environmental or just the fact that my cells decided to go rouge and make cancer cells!

Anyways, as of today I'm doing well and resting a lot.  I hope I will be able to do a good job keeping everyone posted on the day to day happenings of what's going on during my treatment and recovery.  I will be going through treatment through September for Chemo and then I will have Radiation after that for 4 weeks.  I'm hoping my Thanksgiving I will be done with treatment and on the road to recovery from all the chemo drugs.  But that's just a hope, I won't be back to my full self for a least a year with all those drugs being pumped in my system I'm sure.

I look forward to hearing from everyone that wants to comment!  I really want to thank everyone that has helped Jonathan and I so far.  We really feel so blessed to have so many people care about us, words cant even express the thoughtfulness and generosity of the people in our lives.  Thank you so much!