About
In October, 2012 at the ripe age of 32, I was diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal B Cell Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I started this blog about two months after my last cycle of chemotherapy. You may wonder why I didn’t blog during treatment and my reason is simple. I was largely incoherent during that time. As my body and my world crumbled around me, the last thing I thought about was writing a blog. So why blog now? Because now that I am through one of the toughest parts of this battle, I have the rest of my to relive the nightmare. I am ready now to let this story go and give it away to the universe because quite frankly, I don’t want it anymore.
I started this blog post-treatment purely for my own personal therapeutic reasons and as such, my posts are real, raw, and emotional. They are memories, stories, visions, and feelings and they may not be in chronological order or factually correct. There were a handful of beautiful things about this journey but I’m not going to paint a rosy picture for the sake of convincing you that I faced this illness with courage and composure. This was an ugly time.
This is the retelling my story and it’s not perfect. Don’t judge me if my spelling and grammar are incorrect. I do use profanity occasionally. Please don’t be offended. It’s just that sometimes there is no better way to convey an emotion.
In an effort to protect my family and friends and to keep them anonymous, I will not use their names but I will name them in other ways. For example, I will refer to my husband as DH which is short for “Darling Husband.” Although my husband is darling, I would have chosen something different; however, this common abbreviation is everywhere online and so most readers should easily recognize it. I will refer to our amazing two-year old son as Little Man. I have two older siblings, a sister and a brother and I will refer to them simply as Sister and Brother. I’m also blessed to have two brothers-in-law and three sisters-in-law. I think of them as my brothers and sisters too and so to simplify things I will refer to them as Brother2 and Sister2.
Check out my other blog, The Curated Vegan.
Please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at: chamsalife18@gmail.com.
Three months post-treatment
Six months post-treatment
Nine months post-treatment
One year post-treatment
18 months post-treatment
Punchy Mommy Believes in Life 
Thank you for sharing your story! Good luck and great health.
Marcy Westerling
http://livinglydying.com/
Thank you Marcy! YOU are an inspiration. I look forward to spending more time with you blog.
I am so thankful you found my blog as it led me to yours! I cannot wait to read each and every post. You have given me hope and brought light to my day. Thank you!
I feel the same about you Kristina. I know your journey has just begun and sometimes it may seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel but you must know that you have every reason to believe that you will beat this. My one year remission anniversary is February 1st. Believe me, it seemed like I would never reach this point. I can’t believe how far I’ve come in one year. Here’s to a lifetime of health and happiness!
Writing is so cathartic to so many of us who have been visited by cancer in one form or another. I look forward to reading your blog, it may take me a long time, but, from what I see, it will be very worthwhile!
Yes, I agree. Writing has been a wonderful outlet for me. I’m really enjoying your blog too. Thanks for finding me!
Thank you for following my blog. I am reading yours, and I am constantly amazed at how resilient we cancer patients and survivors are! It seems that one the Big C enters our lives, nothing else can hurt us! Blessings to you and your family!
Thank you for your kind words Ruth. I love your blog too! Health and happiness to you too!
I’m glad you started writing about your experience. I blogged while I was incoherent (also from PMBCL tx), mostly because my mind was racing and the writing helped to slow it down a bit. Feel free to check out that blog. I’ll be reading yours!
MIa- post a link to your blog. I would love to read it.