Hello! Tomorrow I am finishing my last chemo for stage 2 Hodgkin and honestly, I’m feeling a lot of different emotions about it. I’m incredibly grateful to be reaching this point, but there’s also a weird sadness, anxiety, and uncertainty that I didn’t really expect. For so long, my life has revolved around appointments, scans, treatments, bloodwork, and simply getting through the next day, and now I’m suddenly supposed to figure out what comes next. I’m excited to move forward, but I also know that “finishing chemo” doesn’t necessarily mean everything immediately goes back to normal. I’m wondering how everyone else handled that transition, the mental side of finishing treatment, the fear of scans and recurrence, getting your energy and identity back, and learning how to live life without cancer constantly being at the forefront of your mind. I’d really love to hear from anyone who has been through this and has some advice, perspective, or even just reassurance about what comes next.

Thank you

Cheers

Hi there. After my first lung wedges were taken in November 2025, I finally have a working diagnosis and treatment plan.

I'm officially diagnosed with low grade B cell NHL, EMZL most likely. My oncologist doesn't want to put a label on it (like most dudes I ever dated) but feels it's close enough and needs something to file the paperwork to the insurance. He was still on the fence as to if he thought it was really lymphoma or if the monoclonal cellular changes were just randomly found and more associated with autoimmune lung disease, which he also still thinks I have.

I started rituximab last week and apparently had a severe enough reaction that I scared the staff. I expected a flu like reaction, but within about 15 minutes of starting I had chills (got tylenol) followed by flushing (got IV benadryl), followed by nausea and sudden vomiting (some unusual antiemetic I've never heard of), followed by severe abdominal cramping, shortness of breath (got steroids), and hypertension followed by mild hypotension. I was eventually able to finish the infusion, but it took about 8 hours total. I have my next infusion on Wednesday. We're going for 8 weeks.

I feel really weird about it.

It was originally going to be 4 weeks, but it appears I have an enlarged lymph node in the back of my neck that's been there, slowly enlarging for 4 months or so. I'm not sure if that changed the plan or if it was that my insurance approved more treatment, either way, I was under the impression that it was supposed to be easy. Rituximab is easy, some people have a reaction but they get meds and then it's fine, they said. It's tolerated really well, they said. But I feel like I'm an absolute wuss, because it hasn't been easy. That reaction sucked and I don't look forward to it happening again. I get nauseated every day in the afternoon. I'm tired.

People usually keep working through all of this, they said. I don't know how. Truly, I don't know how it is that people do what they do with cancer that is so much worse than mine. Mine is just a slight quality of life issue, right? I just can't exercise or briskly walk up a flight of stairs. Sure, I often wake up short of breath, but then it gets better. I have a dry cough and I'm exhausted all the time, but that's not as bad as anyone else has it. It's all very minor.

So why does it feel so crappy? And why do I feel like my cancers are the easy ones and I shouldn't even need support because I barely have symptoms (also have/had thyroid cancer)? Anyone else with a less invasive cancer ever feel that way? Or am I just alone in this whining about my great life expectancy/high cure rate and being upset that it isn't being treated like "real cancer"?

No, we're not asking for biopsy results that came back "Positive." We want to hear good things that happened last month. Big, small, or in-between, share whatever has you feeling good recently.

We aim to make this a recurring monthly post on the 1st, but you're of course still welcome and encouraged to post your own successes throughout the month as well. :-)

​

Thank you to playingnaked who has posted these in the past, and also to SparkleDammit who suggested we make it recurring and more frequent!

Hi there. This is follow-up to this post post from yesterday about my recent diagnosis. I just did a video call with my ontologist, where he told me I must have no vitamins or oils while I'm on chemo. This is pissing my mom off since she bought me a ton of them to help me out and strongly believes that they're beneficial due to some studies she read. How dangerous is it to take burdock root pills and oregano oil while doing the treatment?

been a while since i last posted in here, but happy to say i’m still living my best life in remission. Here’s some highlights of my journey in recovery;

1. My hair! I started using nioxin shampoo for fine hair, and i think it really helped with growth and some thinning i had
2. I went to university in the fall, just like i planned before lymphoma took that away. I finished my first year of my bachelor’s in music and managed to make the dean’s list too!
3. I went back to work for the first time in a year and a half. I spent my summer waitressing at a local restaurant. With how bad my peripheral neuropathy was last year, being on my feet for 4-6 hours nonstop would have been near impossible, but the neuropathy in my feet is almost non existent!

4. My heart is actually improving! December 2024, i had a left ventricle ejection fraction of 42%, therefore classifying me as being in early heart failure at just 18. As of my last echo, it’s over 60% (which for you non-nerds is considered normal heart function) Still on heart meds for now, but we’ll see what happens in the next year or so!

5. My periods came back. ‘Nuff said

But most importantly, i keep taking care of myself, i try new things, i live every day like i might be in an infusion chair the next week. I don’t live with constant fear of relapse anymore. The only physical evidence of my ever having cancer are the scars from the biopsies and my picc line.

Hopefully this helps anyone worried/wondering about life after cancer!

Hi it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here! I’m 22f now 21 months out of treatment and in remission after high grade DLBCL. I had 7 rounds of R-CHOP chemotherapy.

It’s been a long time if at all since I’ve felt “right” or back to my old pre-cancer self. Persistent fatigue, dizziness, muscle and bone aches constantly, etc. I’ve been dealing with it as best as I can, but in the last two months it’s gotten much worse. Coupled with some shortness of breath and a feeling I can only describe as a fullness in my throat.

Luckily, I saw my oncologist for my routine follow up last week. My blood work was all good but based on my symptoms, he ordered a CT scan with a suspicion of early relapse. Obviously, I was terrified and spent the week in a state of constant scan-xiety lol.

Today, I just got the call that there’s absolutely nothing that points to the lymphoma returning on my CT scan. So blessed and grateful for this of course. I was obviously immediately relived … but started to think … is this just my life now? Constant fatigue and pain and brain fog? Is that just the trade off for getting into remission from R-CHOP (which I’ll obviously take and am very grateful).

I dunno. Just feeling a lot of emotions. I miss having normal energy levels for my age and not aching all the time. I always thought it would return eventually but it’s only gotten harder. Does anyone else have this experience? Any advice on how to manage it, if so? I appreciate anything, even just the lovely community on here. Thanks!

I just got my interim PET scan back (after 2 cycles of ABVD) and have a Deauville 3. I was originally Hodgkins stage 2A favorable. My doctor had mentioned either 2 more cycles of ABVD or 4 cycles of AVD. Has anyone been successful with the 4 cycles?

Has anyone experienced softening of your voice from PMBCL? Does it come back? How long?

I was diagnosed a few months ago. Voice was definitely VERY very soft. My team said voice will come back, voice box was probably squished by mass. After my 3rd round of chemo, the size of mass has decreased by about half (yayyy) but my voice is still weak. It’s definitely gotten better, but will have bad days (like barely a whisper). As a teacher, I can NOT have a soft voice, definitely not this soft (towards the end of last school year, right before getting diagnosed, my voice started softening and with 21 3rd graders, I don’t know how I made it😅)

Hi all, I was diagnosed with stage 3 classic follicular lymphoma about five weeks ago. I did my first round of rituximab/bendamustine two weeks ago. My chemo team was pretty optimistic about how I’d feel afterwards. They told me to expect nausea and fatigue, and said I might even feel better than when I started! Well, I was incredibly nauseous and fatigued for a few days, and then I started feeling much more functional. I was so hopeful that the first few days post chemo would be the worst.

But then, exactly one week after my first treatment, I woke up with a weird, sharp pain in my left armpit. It started fairly manageable, but by evening it was absolutely excruciating. 9/10 pain, couldn’t move or talk, sobbing uncontrollably. I needed two Percocet just to sleep.

The next morning it was significantly better, and it had also moved deeper into my chest, further from my armpit. Turning my torso, laying flat on my back or side, and picking up anything heavy was still pretty awful, 6/10 pain. I consulted my oncologist, who couldn’t find any signs of a swollen lymph node, so he decided it was likely musculoskeletal in nature. However, my husband, an orthopedic surgeon, strongly disagrees with that diagnosis.

I’ve had the pain for six days now, every day in a slightly different location in my left pectoral region. It’s duller now, but still makes it incredibly hard to sleep. Right now it’s under my left ribs, making breathing painful. Regular pain killers don’t help, and I work hard not to take my Percocet without good reason. My assumption is that the pain is caused by inflammation from dying cancer cells, hence the initial location and the traveling. I’m considering asking my oncologist for a ct or xray just to have a better understanding of what’s going on.

My question is, is this a common symptom post chemo? Has anyone else experienced anything similar? It’s made my recovery from my first round incredibly difficult, and I’m terrified that it will come back every time.

Thanks, all!

Hi, everyone.

I just got back from my local health clinic after being told that they're likely gonna put me on ABVD for six months, which they say is the strongest form of chemotherapy there is. I'm still willing to go through with it, but my mother is freaking out and I'm somewhat terrified because they listed all the possible side-effects (most concerningly heart problems). If anyone here has ever taken ABVD, it'd be helpful if you could explain what it was like taking it, what your daily life looked like, and if you experienced any health complications. Please, I would appreciate it so much.

For some added context, I'm 25, and I don't drink nor smoke.

Hi all, I am about 4 years out from 12 infusions of AAVD for stage 3 hodgkin’s. My primary symptoms prior to diagnosis were extreme itching that began in my feet and spread up my body, swollen lymph nodes, and intermittent low grade fevers. I’ve been symptom free for the last 4 years and had good blood work as recently as July. The last few weeks I noticed the soles of my feet itching occasionally and made a mental note to pay attention and call my doctor if it got worse. It’s been every day in the evenings since the end of last week and now they are itching this morning too. I just left a message with my doctor this morning. I have been under a lot of stress lately and am in the middle of moving, so not sure if the stress could be causing it? I’m just feeling extremely upset as I really thought I was past this, and I’m so scared about more treatment. Just looking for support, others experience with relapse, etc. thanks.

Ladieeesssss, how ya doing?

last chemo was september last year. I am 29 and my period was regular throughout chemo with some minor changes regarding cramping / flow. After 6 months of NAVD chemo, I missed 1 period but then it returned to its normal schedule.

I am so sweaty most of the time. About 3 weeks out of the month. Right before and during my period are the worst. I get hot flashes just from bending over and sweat a lot (mostly under arms, even with the clinical strength stuff.) And I get hot at night too which is triggering due to the fresh fear of relapse. The mood swings are also a whole other thing.

My doctors don't want to get into hormonal therapy just yet, they want to see what my body will balance out on its own. They did prescribe me lexapro which they said may help with the hot flashes (it doesnt) but it does help with the anxiety a bit.

I'd love advice if anyone has been through similar. It's a very hot summer AND fall in Georgia right now!

Hi everyone! I'm curious about your daily food choices and what you eat on cheat days while undergoing chemo or immunotherapy. Do you completely avoid added sugar and refined flour products? I am myself getting treated for relapsed CHL

I am almost a year out from my stem cell transplant, I had a scan in June (due to a false positive that was resolved) and my doctor told me I’ll get another one in December per the lymphoma department protocol. I was excited that I will be cancer free until December proves otherwise. Now my doctor informed me per the transplant department that I need a pet scan in October (at my one year post treatment).

My time to “relax” was cut in half. As I wet my hair, I see some hair shed and it freaks me out. I don’t feel right in my body. I keep getting random moments of “cringe” that I might not be done with this. I look for reassurance like that I am gaining weight instead of dropping weight, but sometimes that’s not enough.

Just need solidarity that this is an awful experience, but that life is still pretty cool at the same time.

I start Nivo+AVD on Wednesday. I had my appointment with one of the oncology nurses, and she went over all the possible side effects and what would be considered an ‘emergency’ but when I asked how to help lessen some of the side effects, she didn’t really have any answers. Just kind of shrugged and said to tough it out. So if anyone has any recommendations or tricks that got you through chemo, I’d love to hear it. Someone told me that chewing on ice during treatment will have prevent or lessen the severity of mouth sores. Just things like that. Not looking for a cure all, just tricks that helped you feel a little better. Thank you and you’re all beautiful people.

I am 42yo and have stage 1A cHL. My first treatment was 10 days ago and I've already experienced significant neuropathy. Tingling in feet and hands started a few days after the treatment. It's become worse to the point that on day 7 it felt like the end of one pinky went numb for an hour or so.

I get the impression from previous reddit posts and literature online that my experience is worse than average. Unfortunately most posts don't make it clear how things progressed. I've made my doctor aware and I will see him soon, but I think they don't feel that this is out of the ordinary. What are your experiences?

This is me and Ben, my best friend.

At the beginning of 2024 Ben was accidentally diagnosed with lymphoma after the vet found a tumor on his spleen. It was really hard for me to accept, but we decided to fight it and I was regularly driving him for chemotherapy, which was also very expensive.

He went through two rounds of chemo. Each one lasted around 6 months and unfortunately both times the cancer came back only about a month after finishing treatment. Eventually, together with his amazing oncologist, we decided to switch to chemotherapy that was more about keeping the cancer under control.

There was also one moment after his first relapse when we almost lost him. His lymph nodes around his neck became enlarged and after a biopsy one of them got badly inflamed. It became so swollen that it started putting pressure on his airway and he couldn’t breathe properly.

Our regular vet couldn’t help him, so I had to drive him two hours to the nearest veterinary hospital. We got there pretty much at the last possible moment. He had an extremely high, life-threatening fever and was struggling to breathe. Thankfully the team there was amazing and saved him. He spent two days in the hospital and came back home.

Then in December 2025 I started having stomach pain myself.

At first it honestly felt like stress. The kind of stomach ache you get before an exam at school. I noticed it was getting worse after heavier meals and after Christmas dinner it got bad enough that I even started feeling feverish.

I eventually had an ultrasound and they found a 16 cm mass next to my intestines. At first they thought it might be appendicitis, but after more tests I was diagnosed with lymphoma (Burkitt).

By the time I started chemotherapy at the end of January 2026, the tumor had already grown to 22 cm.

So suddenly I was going through the same thing I had been helping Ben go through for the previous two years.

My first chemo was supposed to keep me in the hospital for about a month. After around two weeks, my fiancée (now my wife) told me that Ben wasn’t doing well. He had what seemed to be an infection in his throat. Antibiotics would help for a moment and then he would get worse again.

Around the same time there was suddenly a flu outbreak in my hospital. My blood counts were basically at zero after chemo, so the doctors decided that sending me home early was actually safer than keeping me there and risking me catching the flu.

When I came home after two weeks, Ben was incredibly happy to see me.

We had basically never been separated for that long before. I work remotely from home, so Ben was always with me. Pretty much 24/7.

Unfortunately his condition kept getting worse and the antibiotics stopped helping.

The next day I was supposed to go back to the hospital for another few hours of chemotherapy. I arranged to leave Ben at the vet so they could take care of him while I was there.

He died in his sleep just a few hours before I was supposed to leave for my chemo.

That was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced. Ben wasn’t “just a dog” to me. He was my best friend and had been next to me every day for years.

And then I had to continue my own cancer treatment without him.

One of the strangest parts of all of this was realizing that some of the chemotherapy drugs I was getting were the same drugs Ben had received. Because of him, cancer treatment somehow wasn’t completely unknown to me anymore. I already knew what chemotherapy looked like. I knew how treatment worked, what the cycles were like and that there would be good and bad days.

My psychologist was actually surprised by how calmly I was going through the whole process compared to many other patients. But I think a big part of it was simply because I had already been through cancer once before, just from the other side.

Ben unknowingly prepared me for my own treatment.

It definitely hasn’t been easy though. I’ve had a lot of complications along the way, including three septic shocks. There were times when I would faint, even outside, and days when I was so exhausted I barely had enough strength to get out of bed to go to the bathroom.

But I’m finally getting close to the end.

My first major PET scan showed that the treatment worked. The 22 cm tumor is basically gone. There are still some remaining changes in the intestinal wall, which is why I’m getting a few additional chemo infusions now.

My last chemotherapy is planned for September and then I’ll have another PET scan.

We’re hoping this one will finally come back clean.

I really wish Ben could be here to see it.

PS. I'm 33, my dog died at 9,5.

I’m 28F and was recently diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma. My pathology suggests folliculotropic MF with transformation vs. T-cell lymphoma NOS. I’m CD30-negative, with around 50% skin involvement but no tumors. PET/CT shows no spread outside the skin. Did someone had the same and how did you treated it? :/

Hi!

I was told by IR that I could take the bandages off my port 48 hours after the procedure, but will need to shower with a cover over it for 1 week. One of the gauze is stuck to my skin due to some dried blood. Does anyone have any experience with this? Wondering if I should just leave it and let it fall off by itself or try to take it off.

Thank you!

Just feeling a little sorry for myself, apologies. But, as a background, diagnosed with ALCL last May, I went through BV-CHP over the summer, a full course, which seemed to go smoothly at the time and got a clear PET scan in October/November. A stem cell transplant was planned but delayed to fit in some preventative radiotherapy and some additional admin delays, meaning the transplant wasn't scheduled until April of this year.

Because of the delays, and some swelling still around previously affected nodes, I was sent for another PET scan in April which found newly active nodes so the transplant was abandoned and I was planned in for GVD salvage chemo. I was already quite ill at that point with stomach problems and nausea that seemed to be a reaction to some antibiotics I'd been given for a skin infection around my line site, we managed to week one infusion of cycle on but when I came in for the week two infusion I was instead diagnosed with a kidney injury and admitted to the ward to be treated for that.

Everything was put on hold for over a month while I recovered from that, though towards the end of that month I was readmitted for symptoms of an infection, mainly a high temperature. Though, for the first of a few times, no specific infection was found, no matter how many blood cultures were taken over days and days. They started cycle two and gave me the week one dose while I was still in, and I actually made it to the week two infusion this time around. Though shortly afterwards I had a fever and an upset stomach again so was back in the ward.

Again, a week of tests wasn't able to find a specific infection and to be honest, my symptoms have barely improved in the week or two since then, but I'm loathed to put myself back in the hospital just to be told they can't find anything. However my consultant saw me while I was in the ward and has decided that there should have been more progress in the reduction of the tumours so put cycle three on pause and sent me for another PET scan for comparison.

I've felt rotten for months now but nobody seems able to treat even the fever or nausea, so now to be told the chemotherapy isn't working either, I'm starting to despair a little.

On my last day of prednisone for 5/6 RCHOP. At this point I can confidently say the daily 100mg dose of prednisone is the worst of all the drugs in this regimen. The frantic restlessness is totally intolerable, i have a bottomless stomach, and the withdrawal kicks me in the ass every time. I will not miss any part of chemo, but prednisone has a special place in hell.

Just wanted to celebrate a victory of being finished with chemo and stem cell transplant! and also a early discharged from the hospital at day+10 and on to recovery now!

Hello guys wondering if there’s someone like me . I have pmbcl
Vena vein enclosed by 180
Degrees and had a syndrome that rushed me
To the hospital

Anyway did first cycle and the bloating/constipation/reflux has been killing me since almost day 1 from chemo. It’s been a week since my first cycle.

I have chemo belly , blurry vision, chest pressure sometimes after eating mostly.

I’m losing weight like crazy

My tumor is 9x7,5x8

Guys any happy stories/advices for the chemo belly , I can’t take it anymore pls help