Christine, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Survivor

My story is a long one and definitely not an easy one. At the age of just 19, I developed kidney disease. My doctors said that I needed dialysis while I waited for a kidney transplant, which can take five to ten years in New York City.

Thankfully my family is amazing, and my mother, father and brother all got tested to see if they were eligible to donate one of their kidneys to me. Miraculously, all three of them came back as a potential match for me, but they deemed my brother the best choice after three months of testing.

We went in for the surgery, and it was successful. However, what many people don’t know about organ transplants is that you must take immunosuppressant medication after receiving a transplant to avoid the possibility of your body rejecting the new organ. There is a very small chance that these medications may increase your risk of developing lymphoma, but with a very small chance, of course, no one ever thinks they will be that 1%.

After eleven and a half years with my kidney transplant, I had a pain in my stomach that increased in intensity over several months. I went to the hospital to stop the unbearable pain, but unfortunately, I got misdiagnosed with terminal ileitis, which my doctors thought could be cured by taking antibiotics. Though the antibiotics helped for a little while, I ended up right back in the hospital after the pain came back.

After going to a different hospital, I was told that my kidney transplant was failing and that I still had terminal ileitis, so I had to go back on dialysis and back on antibiotics, even though my stomach didn’t stop hurting.

After finally getting released to go home after a month’s stay in the hospital, the next day, there was a huge amount of blood in my stool – I couldn’t believe it.

After going to a third hospital, they finally found a mass in my right colon that would need to be removed.

The next part of my journey has been told to me by my husband, mother, and family, because the mass caused an infection in the blood that led to sepsis in the blood. The sepsis caused both my transplanted kidney and my lungs to fail, which led to cerebral hypoxia, so my memory of the next few events are gone.

Apparently, because of the mass in my colon, my husband had to sign off to get an ileostomy put into my digestive system for what they said would be five to six months. Finally, after about 3 days post-surgery, my oxygen levels stabilized, I regained consciousness, and I recognized my family again. I was getting better – or so we thought.

They planned to transfer me to the hospital where I had originally received my transplant because they thought it was best for them to care for my kidney needs, but on the day that transfer was planned for, the results of the mass came back.

It turned out that the mass in my colon had been a tumor the size of an orange, which had come back as positive for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. So on top of everything, I now had cancer too.

I would need six rounds of chemotherapy, which included doxorubicin, which is often nicknamed “The Red Devil”. As if I didn’t have enough on my plate, I also couldn’t get my ostomy reversed until I was in remission. I also couldn’t receive another kidney transplant until I had been in remission for two years.

Thankfully, I have an amazing husband and family that stood by my side throughout everything. Their support is a godsend.

Chemo is as bad as they say it is. I was constantly tired, I would sleep for hours during the day, and I barely had an appetite. I lost seventy pounds in total, lost all my hair and couldn’t walk well due to me being in a hospital bed for three months, but that didn’t stop me.

I maintained a good attitude, I went out with friends, and participated in the New York Lymphoma Walk in June, and made it the whole way. My hair started coming back, my strength increased, and in July 2024, I was told I was officially in remission.

In January 2025 I was able to get my ileostomy reversed. There’s still one more year to go before I can get a new kidney transplant, but I remain hopeful.

I’m here, I’m happy, and the world will hear me roar.

It is important to remember that we cannot help what happens to us, but we can help the way we react to it. Nothing will ever get me down – we must always have determination, hope and strength in ourselves.

I’m here, I’m happy, and the world will hear me roar.