Home • Help • Index • Search

Carmen's Story

My name is Carmen and I'm 16 years old. My story starts on my little brother Ethan's 13th birthday. It was June 24th, and everything was cake and ice cream until I found a small bump near my right collarbone. I showed the bump to my mom that night and we scheduled a doctor's appointment with my pediatrician for the next day-just to make sure it was nothing to worry about.

The next day came and it was time to get to my appointment. On the way there my Mom and I picked up my close friend Jim. Jim and I had made plans to go see a movie after my quick doctor's appointment.

When we first got to the doctor's office I saw my nurse practitioner. She couldn't figure out what was wrong, so she had a group of doctors take a look at me. I had x-rays and bloodwork done, but nobody would tell me what was really going on. None of them gave me any straight answers, and the only information I got was that I was being referred to a pediatric oncologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon for the next day.

I was very nervous about going because everything was so unfamiliar, and I'm very uncomfortable when it comes to do with almost anything that has to do with hospitals. Only a little less than a year ago my Mom finished chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer, so it was a stressful environment to step into again.

When the next morning rolled around, my Mom and I started our long but scenic two-hour drive from Epsom to Lebanon. When we got to the hospital, I was suprised at how big it was compared to Concord Hospital where my Mom had stayed.

The doctor was very nice, right from the first time we met her. She asked a bunch of questions and said she would have to run some tests. I cried when I had to have an IV line put in, since I used to be really scared of needles. I had a jillion and two tests done, like CAT scans and MRI's.

When all the tests were done, the doctor told us I would have to stay overnight, have a biopsy done on the bump near my collar bone and have a bone marrow sample taken.

The next day, I was allowed to go home, but I had to come back the day after that, which was when they told me that I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had to start chemotherapy that day. I also had to have things called spinal taps.

For almost the entire summer I had to have outpatient chemo every week, and every other week I had a spinal tap. I dyed my hair a neat fuschia color before it all fell out, but I only got to show a few of my close friends at the time; Sara, Nick and Jim. During the summer when I was in the hospital for a week, they were all there for me the best they could be. At the beginning of the school year I got a leaking spinal tap. That's when spinal fluid keeps dripping, only into your body. It made it so every time I tried to stand up, or even sit up, I'd throw up because the pressure of fluid surrounding my brain was all messed up. It got fixed with a spinal patch, which was very painful.

Now things are getting better, medically at least. Even though pretty much all of my so called "close friends" have ditched me, I still have my best friend Sara. I also noticed that a lot of people avoid you if they know you have cancer, and that it scares a lot of them. I go in for chemotherapy every three weeks, and the tumors under my ribs keep getting smaller. I'm looking forward to being completely cancer-free. Soon, I will have had a full year of chemo. I now know that whatever doesn't kill you only makes you a better stronger person in the end.

Carmen's Artwork

Dartmouth Medical School • Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center   White River Junction VAMC • Dartmouth College
Copyright © 2006 Trustees of Dartmouth College
Feedback