30 Years Ago: Becoming Cancer Free

I don't write much about cancer these days. Between 1995 and 2005 I did extensively. As this is an anniversary, one that I may have not gotten to, I am writing down a bit of the journey I went on back then.

I was in the US Diplomatic Corps, the US Foreign Service, back in the 1990s, as a Security Engineering Officer.  It was a niche job for an Electrical Engineer, but we were traveling the world. In the early 90s, we lived in New Delhi with our infant daughter. In 1993 I was getting hip pain and was prescribed ibuprofen. Then I was transferred to Sofia, Bulgaria. I started feeling worse, aches, chills, numbing of my extremities. And the itching started. The medical staff flew me to London for tests. Lots of tests for tropical disease were negative. But a chest x-ray led to finding out I had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the imune system. I flew back to Bulgaria, we packed suitcases and flew back to Washington.

In DC, I was diagnosed with stage 4BE Hodgkin's, the most advanced. It was throughout my lymphatic system, my lung, and in my bone marrow. I was given a 45% chance of survival. I started on a fairly new chemotherapy, ABVD, along with Neupogen to stimulate my white blood cell production and the new Zofran antinausea medicine ($20 a pill). Treatments were torture and days after I was very bad off. I still was working as my doctor said I might need a bone marrow transplant afterwards. All during this my second daughter was born. I wanted to live to see my daughters grow up.

About 30 years ago, in the Fall of 1994, I was declared in remission. There was no sign of the cancer. I still had a high chance of relapse so there was no time to celebrate. Many visits and tests to see if it had returned. Those checks became less frequent. At 5 years, I asked if I could declare victory. "No, maybe 10 years." Then at 10 years, it was "Visit if you feel ill." I have never really been able to celebrate beating it. The process was hard for my family. It was very hard for me. And the uncertainty of relapse was always haunting me.

My daughters have grown into accomplished women. I retired from the Foreign Service in 2018 after 30 years of service. I'm in Florida now and happy. And I'm celebrating 30 years being cancer free. I deserve that much.