My cancer journey started in January 2021. I was so excited that I got through 2020 thinking I hadn't gotten sick at all. In my mind, the pandemic was over, and I was feeling great and ready to go back to work since I had sat home during the pandemic doing my best to stay healthy. A little voice inside of me said, "Brian, get a physical, and start the year right." So, I had my blood drawn and got my lab results back on a Saturday morning. I was supposed to follow up with my primary the following Monday.
My labs looked pretty good to me except for one test which was my white blood cell count. It was 16.1, as it isn't supposed to be higher than 11. I'm grateful that my cousin/godmother/cancer survivor/medical doctor is in my life. I called her up to ask about these numbers. She said, "Just relax, and stay off of Google, you probably have a cold, and your body is building up to fight the infection. Talk with your primary on Monday about retaking your labs in a month, and your numbers should go back to normal.” That sounded great to me, and my primary concurred.
I walked around for a month feeling like my numbers would drop back to normal, and I was going to be okay. Thirty days later, I went to retest, but my numbers got even higher, so now I knew something was wrong. My primary told me she wanted me to see a hematologist. I was so cancer-naive at this point, I didn't even know what that meant. I looked up the doctor, and it said hematologist/oncologist. I knew what an oncologist was, and now things were getting real, and there was a lot of uncertainty as I took more and more tests. In May 2021, my LabCorp app diagnosed me with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) on a Friday at 8:30 p.m., so I again went to Dr. Google for a second opinion, and that put me in a serious depression.
I went online and found support groups and was given the name of an MCL specialist in North Jersey. I went for an appointment and had more and more tests, and the doctor wanted to treat me using targeted treatments. I then started getting notifications that the insurance company was denying these treatments as my numbers and my depression grew more and more. In December 2021, I was given a call by oncologist #3 who explained to me that the insurance company wanted to pay for basic chemotherapy, but when that failed, they would pay for the targeted treatment that oncologist #2 knew was best for me.
He then proceeded to connect me with oncologist #4 who was running a clinical trial using the same types of targeted treatment that #2 knew would work best for me. On February 3, 2022, I was accepted to the clinical trial. I put my head down on her desk and cried out about 85 percent of the depression that was in my body as I began healing that day. From that point on, I've dedicated my life to working with others whose lives have been affected by one form of cancer or another. Brian and many others win today; cancer loses.
I am extremely grateful for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), now Blood Cancer United. As I always say, they gave me a voice to advocate for other patients as I was asked to share my journey at an in-patient New Jersey educational event alongside my Dr./BFF, Dr. Anita Kumar at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Someone from LLS Advocacy saw a video of me speaking that night and asked to share my story in front of lawmakers in D.C., and I am forever grateful to pay it forward for others whose lives have been affected by one form of cancer or another.
I have also participated in and volunteered to work on different events such as Light The Night (LTN) and The Philly Big Climb.
Brian
mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)
