Chevy’s 4th battle against Lymphoma

Hi! My name is Chevy. I am a 23 year old who hopes to be able to become an oncology nurse someday. It seems like every time I try to go to school, I’m delayed again. I just want to be a normal guy. 

For the 4th time since 2019, I will be going through treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma. I was diagnosed on February of 2019. I completed chemotherapy however the cancer showed back up in December of that year. I did chemotherapy again starting in January 2020. We thought maybe that would put it in remission forever but the cancer had different plans and came back again. I did a stem cell transplant in January 2021. We all had high hopes that I would finally be cancer free. 

In January of 2023, I had more swollen lymph nodes in my armpit. I hope that it was just because I had recently been sick but they they grew to a lemon size, the daunting question of if it was cancer again became a reality in the urgent care. Of course they don’t tell you again. They just tell you to follow up with the oncologist and they say they’re sorry. But deep down you know. The follow ups confirmed the worst. Symptoms and scans are consistent with lymphoma again. I was sent for the removal of the lymph node that caused me such significant pain that I could barely stand it. Thankfully it didn’t show anything different than what we expected.

The options were weighed and a decision had to be made. At 23 years old, I had to decide either to keep fighting or give up. The fight means more torture through chemotherapy. It alters not just my physical being but my mental and emotional being. It’s painful. It’s exhausting. It’s life altering. It’s expensive. After 2-6 rounds of chemotherapy, I will do a allogeneic stem cell transplant. My brother will hopefully be a match otherwise an outside donor will be sought. I will be in the hospital for at least 4 weeks. The doctors say that they have seen 100% of patients with progressive, recurring lymphoma cured from this treatment course. It’s hard to stay hopeful after this many recurrences ya know?

My parents have pretty good insurance but our out of pocket maximum for an individual is $6,850 not to mention all the time missed from work for chemotherapy and during the transplant. I worked during all of my other treatments and hope to do so again but when I’m in the hospital that won’t be possible. We know that things are tight for everyone right now. I don’t want to burden my family with all of these financial complications and will work hard too. Any amount of donation would be directly used to cover these expenses. I could also use all the thoughts you can throw up. This battle is a difficult one. One I truly didn’t want to do again. I will keep things updated so even if you follow along for that, it would be nice to have you around. 

Thank You!

Chevy