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Surviving Hodgkin's
September 18, 2008 |
At 18 years old, Bill Rothenbach began intense physical training at the United
States Naval Academy. A few days into the activity Bill noticed some big changes
with his body. He says, “I had been experiencing lower back pain, night sweats,
and chills, things like that. I ignored the symptoms and when I was feeling back
pain I would take aspirin.”
But Bill began to feel sick and he could no longer ignore his symptoms. “When I
would go to the bathroom and see blood I reported it to my superiors.” Several
tests and a cat scan revealed that Bill had cancer. “I had cancerous growths
throughout my abdomen a few tests later they determined that it was Hodgkin’s it
was stage 3-B and there are only four stages.”
After seven months of chemotherapy and radiation Bill was in remission. He says
if he had continued to ignore the signs his body was giving him, he may not have
survived. “When you’re 18 you feel like you’re going to live forever. They all
told me had I waited much longer I would have been in a lot worse shape and the
treatment would have been a lot more painful and it would have been longer and
maybe not as successful.
Bill says he would not want to go through cancer treatments again but he is
thankful for the lessons he learned, especially when it comes to trusting his
body. “If you feel like something is wrong, your initial instinct is usually
correct; something is wrong so go and get it checked.”
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a cancer that greatly affects a person’s immune system.
But the cure rate for people under 20 years old is now more than 95%. Hodgkin’s
disease is named after a British physician who first described the condition in
1832. |
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