Survivors! by Ruth Ann Angus
Posted by Ruth Ann Angus
On August 2nd we were privileged to hear from an awesome teenager who
took a devastating time in her life and did something positive with it.
Melinda Marchiano was 13 when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. A
12.5 cm tumor was lodged around her trachea making breathing difficult
for her. This mass contained blood vessels and nerve endings and was
painful. But at the time neither she nor her doctors knew that it was
there. After an agonizing time searching for the cause as to why she
felt so ill, a simple X-ray finally showed the mass. But finding that it
was cancer was a revelation for her.
Young people in their teens are often victims of this type of cancer, but Melinda was rather young to have come down with this. She endured months of chemotherapy having five separate types of chemo drugs pumped into her frail body. This along with many medications that cancer patients must endure in order to boost their immune systems while fighting their disease took a toll on her. She certainly did not enjoy her first year as a teenager. Fourteen days of intense radiation followed the chemo. While she thought that the end of treatment would mean the end of feeling horrible, she found out that this is far from the case. A terrible eating disorder began as well as other after effects of the cancer treatments. It was a long and difficult struggle for a girl who loved to dance and yearned to be out on the stage with her contemporaries, on pointe, in her ballet shoes.
What did she do with all of this? She wrote. Melinda wrote and wrote and detailed every nuance of her cancer journey. The eventual outcome of this journaling was a full-fledged book, her memoir,entitled "Grace."
I had the pleasure of speaking at the Relay For Life along with Melinda and I am proud to say that we both had a good story to tell. As far as we know we have beaten our cancers. Her PET scan and x-Rays no longer show the mass or any cancer cells in her body. I, too, have been given a clean bill of health.
Today, August 9th, is the four year anniversary of my breast cancer surgery. I have been reading Melinda's book and am horribly reliving my cancer journey. Although we had different types of cancer and we are about 50+ years difference in age, our cancer experiences are eerily the same. Melinda did not leave out anything -- the pain and misery of the Neupegen shots that were to help us with our immune system and blood counts, all the medications besides the chemo, the nausea, the vomiting, the pain all over our bodies, the dizziness, and the never ending fatigue, one of the after effects I am left with apparently for the rest of my life. Melinda is young and hopefully will outgrow these things. She conquered her eating disorder and now appears as a beautiful, healthy young woman.
Survivors. That is what they call anyone who has come out of battling cancer and is still living. I never related to that terminology nor could I accept myself as a survivor for these past four years. And although my oncologist feels that my type of cancer, which was supposed to return in a year according to statistics and has not, is gone for good, I remain skeptical and cautious. Why? Because there is NO CURE FOR CANCER. Until medical science knows why certain peoples' immune systems are incapable of destroying rogue cells in our bodies, we cannot use the word cure. Chemotherapy is only a treatment. It is not a cure. This is why I participate each year since my cancer recovery in Relay For Life with the American Cancer Society to raise money to go towards cancer research.
My humble thank you to everyone who donated, raised funds, and participated in this year's Relay For Life. You can be assured that you have contributed to a cause that will continue to bring newer and better treatments for cancer victims and hopefully find that elusive cure so that we will never again lose anyone to this awful disease.
Melinda and I are proud to be SURVIVORS!
Young people in their teens are often victims of this type of cancer, but Melinda was rather young to have come down with this. She endured months of chemotherapy having five separate types of chemo drugs pumped into her frail body. This along with many medications that cancer patients must endure in order to boost their immune systems while fighting their disease took a toll on her. She certainly did not enjoy her first year as a teenager. Fourteen days of intense radiation followed the chemo. While she thought that the end of treatment would mean the end of feeling horrible, she found out that this is far from the case. A terrible eating disorder began as well as other after effects of the cancer treatments. It was a long and difficult struggle for a girl who loved to dance and yearned to be out on the stage with her contemporaries, on pointe, in her ballet shoes.
What did she do with all of this? She wrote. Melinda wrote and wrote and detailed every nuance of her cancer journey. The eventual outcome of this journaling was a full-fledged book, her memoir,entitled "Grace."
I had the pleasure of speaking at the Relay For Life along with Melinda and I am proud to say that we both had a good story to tell. As far as we know we have beaten our cancers. Her PET scan and x-Rays no longer show the mass or any cancer cells in her body. I, too, have been given a clean bill of health.
Today, August 9th, is the four year anniversary of my breast cancer surgery. I have been reading Melinda's book and am horribly reliving my cancer journey. Although we had different types of cancer and we are about 50+ years difference in age, our cancer experiences are eerily the same. Melinda did not leave out anything -- the pain and misery of the Neupegen shots that were to help us with our immune system and blood counts, all the medications besides the chemo, the nausea, the vomiting, the pain all over our bodies, the dizziness, and the never ending fatigue, one of the after effects I am left with apparently for the rest of my life. Melinda is young and hopefully will outgrow these things. She conquered her eating disorder and now appears as a beautiful, healthy young woman.
Survivors. That is what they call anyone who has come out of battling cancer and is still living. I never related to that terminology nor could I accept myself as a survivor for these past four years. And although my oncologist feels that my type of cancer, which was supposed to return in a year according to statistics and has not, is gone for good, I remain skeptical and cautious. Why? Because there is NO CURE FOR CANCER. Until medical science knows why certain peoples' immune systems are incapable of destroying rogue cells in our bodies, we cannot use the word cure. Chemotherapy is only a treatment. It is not a cure. This is why I participate each year since my cancer recovery in Relay For Life with the American Cancer Society to raise money to go towards cancer research.
My humble thank you to everyone who donated, raised funds, and participated in this year's Relay For Life. You can be assured that you have contributed to a cause that will continue to bring newer and better treatments for cancer victims and hopefully find that elusive cure so that we will never again lose anyone to this awful disease.
Melinda and I are proud to be SURVIVORS!