My name is Lora, and I am from the United States. I was diagnosed in 2022 and am currently at stage 3 follicular lymphoma.
I’m a scheduler for an electric company where I have worked for 34 years. I have a son with special medical/developmental needs, and part time I work with the Oklahoma Family Network to provide support to families who have a child with special needs. This could be talking with them over the phone, visiting the hospital, helping with support groups, and running a local Sibshops for the brother and sister who have a sibling with special needs. I am deeply passionate about my work there and supporting other families on their journeys.
My best friend and I love to explore and see sights we haven’t seen before. We pick a new place to travel to on our annual vacation, and have gone to Seattle, Washington; Memphis & Pigeon Forge, TN and of course drove all around the Smokey Mountains. We went to visit Yellowstone National Park and were on our way the year it flooded. It was shut down, so we spent amazing time in the Grand Tetons, WY; Charleston, SC & Savannah, GA was amazing to see all the war history. Phoenix, AZ and a drive to the Grand Canyon which was so amazingly breath taking. This past summer we went to Boston, MA which was an amazing place, we had so much fun, exploring war history, the sons of Liberty and a whale sighting tour and seeing whales outside off the Main coast. This fall we plan to visit Salem, MA, take a trip up through New Hampshire and see Vermont in the fall.
I knew something was going on with me, but I just wasn’t sure. A trip to the ER and the doctor mentioned that the knots on my clavicle were lymph nodes, yet I never dreamed I had lymphoma. I had surgery on a Wednesday to remove a lymph node for testing and the following week I received the diagnosis of FL. I was honestly numb when the surgeon told me the diagnosis, then I was in disbelief because this shouldn’t happen to me, he must be wrong, and then scared not knowing what all this meant.
My first appointment with the hematologist and I wanted action. I was very frustrated because he told me what he suspected my treatment would be, but we needed a PET scan and bone marrow biopsy to stage me. Subsequently, I went through six months of B&R which went pretty well except for a few days of sickness and fatigue following each treatment. My challenge was to rebuild my energy levels and strengthen my weakened immune system so that I could carry on doing all the things I love to do.
Initially, I think I just went through the motions getting all of that done, just going through life, but I didn’t let it stop me. It was a bump in the road of my life which slowed me down for a while. I am a strong person of faith in God; I did lots of praying and my church, friends and family were all very supportive. I read a post on the Living with FL Facebook page, and someone was talking about keeping your life as normal as possible, get up, go, and do, because this tells your body you are fighting this. I was like ok, I’m strong willed and we are fighting, I am going to participate in life as much as possible, I’m going to get up and show up and I did just that!
