During Melanie's 10 years as a cancer survivor, so many people have made gestures that I will long remember. But sometimes a friend just takes you by surprise and does something so wonderful it is hard to talk about. And when that friend does something for your child, well it brings tears to your eyes. Melanie has a friend from her college days at Colorado College named Kristin Bohl. Just as Kristin was bringing new life into the world in the form of baby, Ellwood, she was also trying to make the world a better place for cancer survivors.Check this out and take a look at what Kristin is doing.
Join the Battle with Kristin Bohl. Beat Rare Cancers.
I am proud to say that 2014 will be my fifth year participating in Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Cycle for Survival. This year is extra special, because I am honored to dedicate my ride to my dear friend Melanie Richmond Hodgman - mountain climber, world trekker, woman extraordinaire, and cancer fighter/survivor. Here's her story:
My name is Melanie Hodgman, and I'm honored that Kristin is dedicating her Cycle for Survival ride in my name this year. Kristin and I met in the first week of our freshman year at Colorado College and became instant friends. Over the years at CC with Kristin, I ate my first bratwurst "up North" in Wisconsin with her family, sunbathed with Nana and Papa in Arizona during a college break, danced the night away before our graduation, and shared many adventures. While we've moved on from those days, Kristin's same level of dedication to helping others I saw 10 years ago continues through events like the Cycle for Survival.
The Cycle for Survival is a cause that directly impacts me and my life with cancer. Three days after my birthday in 2004, at the ripe old age of 24, I was diagnosed with metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma- thyroid cancer. I had no known exposure to radiation and no family history of the disease. Within 10 days of being diagnosed at a local hospital outside of Boston, I underwent a nine hour surgery to remove my entire thyroid and all the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck. Within eight weeks post-diagnosis, I had undergone another corrective surgery and received my first round of I-131 radiation to blast remaining cancer cells. A scan post-radiation showed that the cancer had possibly spread distally to my lungs.
While thyroid cancer is a "good" cancer, as all the docs will tell you as a patient, cancer metastases away from the original site makes things a bit more complex. My amazing parents asked my local doc in Boston where the best thyroid cancer doctors and treatments were being done in the country and they were told Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, and MD Anderson in Texas. Many phone calls later, my parents were able to get me in to seen at Sloan Kettering.
While thyroid cancer is a "good" cancer, as all the docs will tell you as a patient, cancer metastases away from the original site makes things a bit more complex. My amazing parents asked my local doc in Boston where the best thyroid cancer doctors and treatments were being done in the country and they were told Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, and MD Anderson in Texas. Many phone calls later, my parents were able to get me in to seen at Sloan Kettering.
The positive aspects of being a patient at Sloan (as we call it in my family) were apparent from the start. The doctors and nurses are friendly, professional, incredibly knowledgeable, and the thyroid cancer docs are engaged in cutting-edge clinical trials to improve not only survival outcomes, but also in treatment procedures that improve the quality of life for patients. Although it was not quite FDA approved at the time (but has been since), for my second round of radiation treatment in 2006 I was able to stay on my thyroid medication and get a shot for three days pre-treatment, instead of having to go off my meds for 4-6 weeks as was done in the past. The impacts of stopping thyroid medication include extreme fatigue, weight gain, fuzzy thinking, impaired reaction time, feeling cold all the time, depression, and more. Getting the shots meant I was able to keep up my normal work and daily life, enabling me to get back on my feet post-radiation much more quickly and easily. This was a big deal to me as a 26 year old starting a new job and hoping for the least amount of residual impacts of the cancer treatments as possible.
I've been living with thyroid cancer for 9 1/2 years and continue as a patient at Sloan Kettering even though I've been living with my husband in Seattle for the past four years. I still have active disease being monitored by my amazing doctor, Dr. Tuttle, who I continue flying back to see once a year because I trust him completely for my long-term treatment and I know I'll get the best care around. While the cancer I have remaining seems to be resistant to radiation and so will need to be dealt with surgically if/when the time comes, a drug in current clinical trials that Dr. Tuttle is working on may make my cancer cells once again receptive to radiation. This will be a game-changer for people who have tumors in places that are difficult to reach surgically, and could be used to treat my cancer as well. It is yet another example of the improvements in treatment that are made possible through research at MSK, and all that research costs money...lots of it.
Cancer is an ongoing part of my life and may be for a long time. Knowing that I will continue to receive the care I need at Sloan Kettering makes living with a chronic disease so much easier to deal with mentally and allows me to focus on living rather than living with cancer.
Thank you so much for your support of Kristin and Memorial Sloan Kettering. Your donation will add to research funds that are leading to major breakthroughs in rare cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survival rates. They may even fund research that impacts my treatment some day.
Thank you so much for your support of Kristin and Memorial Sloan Kettering. Your donation will add to research funds that are leading to major breakthroughs in rare cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survival rates. They may even fund research that impacts my treatment some day.
Amazing, right? So I am riding for Melanie - to honor her courage, her passion, and her fight. Please support my ride, and the amazing work done by MSK to beat rare cancers.
Much love,
Kristin
If you want to read more you can check out her efforts at:
Join the Battle. Help us beat rare cancers by riding at a @Cycle4Survival event:
http://mskcc.convio.net/site/TR?px=1536783&pg=personal&fr_id=2090
