When a taxi passenger tells me they have cancer, many are surprised by how precisely I know what to ask. Some ask me straight out how I know. Others are left wondering.<\/p>\n
I know because at 18, I had Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes.<\/p>\n
First came a dry cough and shortness of breath. Breathing felt heavy. Then my lymph nodes started to swell. That's why my mum and I finally went to see a doctor.<\/p>\n
At the health centre, they took blood tests, and my CRP was over 300. The chest X-ray showed that the space around one of my lungs was full of fluid.<\/p>\n
I spent four days on the ward, and they took blood tests every day. On the second day, they removed a lymph node from my neck for a biopsy and drained fluid from around my lung with a needle as long as a chopstick. The fluid was the colour of peaches.<\/p>\n
Monday turned into Thursday, and I got to go home. The following Wednesday, they asked me to come back. That\u2019s when they told me I had lymphoma.<\/p>\n
How is an 18-year-old supposed to deal with cancer?<\/p>\n
You don't.<\/p>\n
I spent that time living in a bubble. My studies were put on hold, and I had to take a gap year I never chose.<\/p>\n
My dad started teaching me to drive. The first time we went out to practise was on the frozen sea, right here in Vaasa. And funnily enough, now I drive a taxi for a living.<\/p>\n
My dad. He went into semi-retirement when I got sick and drove me to my treatments every other week.<\/p>\n
Nature. I went for a lot of walks.<\/p>\n
The cat my family got me after I was ill.<\/p>\n
And one number: how many chemo sessions were left before I got the all-clear.<\/p>\n
An understanding I don\u2019t always need to bring up.<\/p>\n
Scars the treatments left all over my body.<\/p>\n
Even though I remember fighting cancer like it was yesterday, I don't see life through the lens of the illness. It left me with a lot of good things, too, like appreciating my own health and the small, simple things.<\/p>\n
A lot has happened in my life since then. And despite the illness, I\u2019ve been blessed with two healthy children.<\/p>\n
When a passenger tells me about their cancer, I often don't mention my own. I know the right questions to ask. And almost always, it's enough for them to notice that this person understands and has the patience to listen.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A dry cough, a CRP of over 300 and fluid filling the space around my lungs. At 18, I was told I had lymphoma.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":101253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[111,112,98,113,114],"class_list":["post-101252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elamasta","tag-hodgkinin-tauti","tag-imusolmukesyopa","tag-jaksaminen","tag-syopa","tag-terveys"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t