My husband, Hunter, and I were so excited to have our first baby, Jack Jack, born in May of 2019. Our lives were full; we both had great jobs, he an apprentice lineman for a utility company, and I a civil engineer for the county. We had just bought our first home and found a new church home. Life seemed to be perfect, then in December 2019, with a seven-month-old baby, things drastically changed. I felt a lump in my armpit. I was having a little trouble producing breast milk for my baby and just assumed it was a clogged milk duct. Boy, was I wrong! I scheduled an appointment with my doctor, and she ran some tests and informed me a few days later that, in fact, it was not a clogged duct, but Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). I was in complete shock; I called my husband and parents right away, and the almost four-year battle against cancer began.
After meeting with an oncologist, whom I would soon become very close to, she recommended a treatment that was initially effective and stated I would probably be done before my son’s first birthday. We started with a chemo cocktail drug known as ABVD. Unfortunately, my PET scans were showing the cancer had grown through the chemo and appeared in my lungs and lymph nodes. The type of cancer I had is typically very treatable, but test results showed it to be an anomaly, an aggressive form, and resistant to the drug treatments. It was decided that I would need a bone marrow transplant, but in order to receive the transplant, I would have to be cancer-free. Other regimens were formulated by a team of well-renowned experts, including chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, and a clinical trial. I was referred by my doctor to have the transplant at Stanford Medical Center in California. After three and a half years of trying to get cancer-free, I was finally ready to start the transplant process. I was giving myself chemo shots at home in preparation to collect my stem cells. Prior to implanting my new port for the transplant, I had to have a negative COVID test. With no symptoms, I unfortunately tested positive. I was distraught and worried that this would yet again delay my transplant. Thankfully, Stanford was able to still collect my stem cells without my new port. Then the transplant began, and I would live in the hospital for over three weeks. This was the hardest time for me as I couldn’t see my baby. My transplant was complete on October 26, 2021. This would be my “new birthday” as the immune system I once had was wiped out and no more. I was now like a baby again and would have to build a new immune system, a new internal me.
During this time, my family and friends had decided to form a fundraising team to support Blood Cancer United. A dear friend of mine had been active with this organization and wanted to form a team in my honor. I had learned that Blood Cancer United funded research for blood cancers. Although I wasn’t able to be directly involved in most of the fundraising events on my behalf, I was thankful for the money raised for this wonderful organization. I did participate in our team Facebook challenge and had a personal goal of $5,000, of which I raised $5,610 on my own. My team raised over $12,000 with the Facebook challenge and an additional $4,000 with a Bunko fundraiser.
My team also attended Light The Night (LTN) in Fresno on my behalf. I was still in the hospital and wasn’t able to attend. Seeing the kindness and generosity of our small community was overwhelming. I was so grateful for all our fundraising efforts, as I knew Blood Cancer United was all about research to help cure blood cancers and could have very well been involved in research with some of the treatments I received.
My husband and I knew before I was diagnosed with cancer that we definitely wanted more than one child. The doctors told us we would have to have some of my eggs extracted and frozen and later reimplanted to ensure we could get pregnant again. I did have this done just in case, as a Plan B. Another option was to put the remaining eggs in my body into a hibernation state that would be protected from all the chemo and drugs that entered my body, with the hopes that I could get pregnant again naturally. We would have to wait a couple of years to be sure all scans and tests were clear of any cancer to be able to get pregnant again. By the grace of God, this was the case! We were blessed with our second baby boy in March of 2024, who arrived perfectly healthy. Again, we were blessed with our third child, a baby girl born in September 2025. Through this journey, I have learned so much about myself. I can say that I am thankful for this journey. God was with me every step of the way, and I found hope in Him through all the ups and downs. I wouldn’t change my journey, and I’m thankful for the story I get to tell.
Today I am still cancer-free, a survivor, happy and healthy with my family, and by the grace of God, I will continue to live a normal, cancer-free life.
Kirsten
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL)
