My name is Carolyn and I live in the United States. I’m a 28 year old teacher and I have a German Shepherd puppy that’s training to be my service dog. I am stage 4 follicular lymphoma.
I was diagnosed on Cinco de Mayo in 2022. Which for most people means celebrating with margaritas, independence, and a good time. Not so much for me, I got the news that day that my biopsy came back positive for follicular lymphoma type 3a.
I am now in remission thanks to a clinical trial drug that worked!
The biggest challenge was managing to get a diagnosis and staging with a teaching career. Telling my students what was going on and seeing the tears roll down their cheeks broke my heart. I missed graduation and most of the fun end-of-the-school-year events. Thankfully treatments started in June, so I didn’t have to miss too much work. I will say spending a summer going through treatment was not what I’d expected to be doing, but I had so much support and time off that we made it work.
If I could offer advice and encouragement to others, it would be to always celebrate; from the small victories, to the holidays, to birthdays and so forth. Never let the celebrations stop because you never know which moment could be your last.
