By: Abbie Schenck 3rd hour Hodgkin’s Lymphoma By: Abbie Schenck 3rd hour

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a type of Cancer that attacks the lymph nodes in your body. The Lymph system is part of your immune system that helps fight off infections and other diseases. Hodgkin’s has four different stages and each stage has a part a and a part b. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is one of the most treatable forms of cancer if caught in the early stages.

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affects the immune system Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affects the immune system. It mostly occurs in age groups between 15 to 19 and people older than 55. The survival rate for all patients diagnosed with Hodgkin’s is about 92 %. For patients in stage 4 you can beat the disease but the survival rate is lower.

First signs of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are night sweats, swollen lymph node glands, decreased appetite, unexplained weight loss, and abdominal pain.

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affects the immune system; you may be more prone to getting infections than someone who does not have the disease. The Cancer cells can block lymph node fluid causing swelling and the buildup of tumors throughout your body. This disease can also spread to other parts of your body such as your liver, lungs, and bone marrow.

Some causes of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are rheumatoid arthritis; certain viral and bacterial infections that transform lymphocytes increase the risk, such as Epstein-Barr. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is also hereditary.

The below picture shows a port used to receive Chemotherapy. The treatment for Hodgkin’s is usually a combination of chemotherapy which is the use of chemical substances to treat cancer growth and radiation treatment which is the use of high energy radiation from x-rays and gamma rays to kill cancer cells. There is no way to prevent this disease from attacking the immune system. The below picture shows a port used to receive Chemotherapy.

Below is a patient receiving Chemotherapy

A patient receiving radiation treatment

How Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affected my mom’s everyday life How Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affected my mom’s everyday life. Her life was turned upside down when she was 18 years old. She felt a lump on my neck and from there we started with lymph node biopsy. My mom started Chemotherapy and radiation treatments right away. She did treatments every 2 weeks for a 7 month period. On days of treatment she would be very sick couldn’t get out of the bed, and would want to sleep for days. After a couple of treatments she began to lose her hair, which she eventually had my dad shave the rest of the hair off that hadn’t fall out yet. She was told she would never have any children, but with God’s prayers she was blessed with 4 wonderful girls.

My Family

My mom states “After 10 years I was in remission from Hodgkin’s and living a wonderful life.” Some long term effects it has had on my mom is her thyroid doesn’t work so she has to take medicine every day for that. She has also recently had to have open heart surgery one year ago due to the damage of the vessels from chemotherapy. Some other effects is she has to constantly follow up with doctors every year to make sure it doesn’t reoccur.

Picture below of my mom 1 year after treatments with new curly hair, she had straight before treatments.

Citations America, C. T. (2018). Cancer Center. Retrieved 10 25, 2018, from www.cancercenter.com . The main information I gathered from this website were the main symptoms and how Hodgkin's affects the body. Research, M. F. (1998-2018). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic: www.mayoclinic.com. The main information I used was the age range and some pictures of Lymphatic system. Schenck, Jennifer (2018, 11- 3). Hodgkin's . (Abbie Schenck, Interviewer) Slidell, LA, US. The information I gathered was from my mom’s personal experience and was very informational.