You have cancer....say what!?

"When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.” -Lance Armstrong

I consider myself to be a pretty typical college student. My world revolved around school, work, family, friends, and beer. A lump was noticed in my neck that concerned my family Doctor, so he sent me to a specialist who removed my lymph node to test what was going on. Needless to say my world was rocked on November 8th 2011 when my Doctor called to let me know that my lymph node biopsy came back showing I have Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Being 23 years old and faced with the word "cancer" is one of the scariest things that can happen. I immediately saw images of bald, skeletal, malnourished people in my head. Am I going to die? Will I ever get married? Or have kids? All the things in life that a 23 year old shouldn't have to be questioning.

I was set up with my new best friend..my Oncologist, Dr. Reddy. The journey to finding the perfect Oncologist was a short one. Within one minute of being in the room with my Doctor, I knew he was the perfect match for me...the first words out of his mouth were...

"This is curable, Molly. And we're going to beat this." (In his Indian accent, where "Molly" actually sounds like "Holly"...but I ignored that part and assumed he was talking to me.)

Within the first week of being diagnosed I had to have:

1. Bone Marrow Biopsy
2. Portacath put into my chest for my chemo treatments
3. Heart and Lung tests to make sure I'm all healthy there
4. A PET scan to see what areas of my body are affected by the cancer

After allllll of this...the bone marrow showed that the cancer had not yet reached my bones (yay!), and the PET scan showed it hadn't reached my organs (double yay!). So that put me at Stage 2. Which equals 4 months of Chemotherapy.

So. If you know me at all, you know my hair is my baby. My pride and joy. So, obviously, my first question was.."Am I going to lose my hair?!"

The chemo treatment I'm doing is called ABVD. Every other Monday until March I go and get my chemo on. I have only had one treatment so far. And I still have all of my hair..so far. Within the next week is when all of my nurses have predicted its going to go. So pray for me about that, I got a new short hair cut to make things a little easier. But, it's still going to be really difficult for me.

This post was really just a boring update to all of those who don't really know what's been going on with me. I'm not one to go on Facebook and say "I have cancer." or call you and say "Hey what's up. I got cancer." That's a lil awkward.

You can expect the rest of my posts to contain more in depth info about yours truly and how things are going, this was really me just playing catchup. I've found nothing has ever made me question life, God, love, family, friends, and everything else more than I have the past month. If this is the first time you've heard that I have cancer, guess what...

Don't worry. I got this!