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This all began the summer of 2010. I felt a lump on the side of my throat, and I had no clue what it was. Like most males, I ignored it for several weeks thinking it would just go away. However, it didn't. My wife, Nori, convinced me to go to the doctor with her since she had an appointment to see her General Physician.  He looked at it, ran some test, and my life was never the same since.

After four months of test and biopsies, I was finally diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Follicular Lymphoma in Stage 4.. Again, no clue what that was as I had never heard of this, but I did know that Stage 4 was not good. 

How could this happen to me?? I was only 36 years-old and healthy as can be with no family history of cancer. So I was on a mission to absorb myself in research and get several doctors' opinions. I went to Medical City-Dallas, UT Southwestern, MD Anderson, and even a private doctor who used to work at MD Anderson. 

After much consideration, I didn't listen to any of the doctors' opinions on treatment and decided to do Rituxan alone. After six weeks of treatment and 2 years of maintenance treatment, I was in remission!

I enjoyed about 8 1/2 years of remission until the cancer reared its ugly head again in the late summer of 2019. However, this time it transformed into a more aggressive sub-type, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. I have completed seven rounds of some pretty intense chemotherapy, and I have a stem cell transplant scheduled for June. I look forward to hopefully being cured of this stubborn cancer!

7/5/21 UPDATE: This Wednesday will be mark the 1-year anniversary of my stem-cell transplant. The stem-cell transplant process was pretty grueling. The first 7-days were different types of chemotherapy, then a day of rest, and finally the stem cell transplant takes. The balance of the 21-days in the hospital is purely observation and recovery. It was definitely a long 21-days since no visitors were allowed due to Covid restrictions. 

I had a recent follow-up with my oncologist, and everything looks great. Reports show that my immune system is recovering well too. I am going through a series of re-vaccinations. I have had 3 out of 4 for this year, and then I get a break for a full year. I was also finally cleared to resume all activities as normal! 

Overall, this past year has been pretty tough. My friends and family have been amazing in support, and my work has been extremely flexible which definitely helped minimize the stress. I will continue to see the oncologist about every four months for routine check-ups.