Hello out there,
Well I don't really know where to start but I thought that a blog would be a great way to reach out to people and share my story (assuming people read it). My name is Lauren and I am a 24 year old cancer survivor. I feel like I should give some background before this blog can really be everything it could be. I think I will take you through my life little by little until we reach the present day. Then everything will be what is going on now. I have always loved making connections with people, and now I feel like I actually have a reason to. I hope someone gets something out of hearing my story.
Well I guess a good place to start would be with my family background. I have the best family ever! I have parents who are still in love after 30 or so years. I have grandparents who send love letters to each other when they are apart. Both my mom and dad are from families of 5, so I have a lot of relatives. I wouldn't have it any other way. Family is the most important thing in my life. I have an amazing sister who I could not love more.
I have always been the athletic type. I played softball as a kid, and fell in love with volleyball when I was 12. I played for the varsity team at my high school and went on to play ball in college. Now that I can not play anymore (we will get to this later) I coach.
I guess this is a good place to start my story. I loved college. I was on the volleyball team which was an instant set of friends. I decided to major in Physical Education and Health to be a teacher, I didn't know which grade yet. I had a boyfriend from high school when I first started college; however we ended up growing apart. It was probably the first week of classes when I met this boy at a party. The volleyball girls wen to the baseball house...trouble already. I met this boy Dan. We hit it off from the start. I did not want to rush into things so I went home and gossiped about him with my roommate...typical. Jodi would just listen and give her insight on the situation. I met Dan again in the parking lot one day at the cafeteria. We were both very excited to see each other. At the end of our conversation I told him to call me sometime and gave him my number. He called that night and we talked for hours. For the next 2 months things were perfect. Volleyball was great, I was playing right front and some back row if I got lucky. Dan and I were extremely happy with each other. Then reality struck.
I started to think to myself that I was just a freshman. I was not ready for forever with Dan (I knew that is what it would be), so I broke up with him. I needed to be on my own for a little to make sure Dan was really what I wanted. I asked Dan to wait, that I wanted to be with him but just not yet. He said ok...amazing right!!!
The holidays came and went. I met some other guys but they were nothing. I knew where my heart was. It was time to come back to school. It was hard to see Dan at the cafeteria and ignore each other. I had my friends and he had his. I was living the life somewhat. Weekends would bring great fun, and the weeks flew by. I found some of my best friends during this semester (you know who you are). Then it was time for spring break. I decided to go snowboarding for the weekend with a few friends. It was an amazing weekend. I really loved snowboarding and I had never been able to do it because of volleyball. However, at the end of the trip my right butt muscle was extremely swollen. My friends and I joked about how I had a half J-Lo butt...pretty nice going from nothing to half a butt. I did not think anything of it, I talked to a few doctors and they just thought it was a deep bruise. So I iced it and it eventually went down and the pain went away.
It was a few weeks later. I was eating pizza in my friend's dorm and reality struck again. I had been coughing up blood all day...don't freak out, it really wasn't that much. I just knew that it wasnt' right. I called my mom to tell her; which was strange because I am usually the kind of girl who would say "it will go away tomorrow". Mom of course was paniced. She asked if I had smoked anything....of course NOT TRUE. She told me to go to the ER right away. Disgruntled and scared, I did. My friends waited there with me...which was about 3 hours by the way. I eventually got a chest X-Ray and that is really when my world turned upside down. There was no more naive Lauren, no more "nothing will happen to me", no more being 18. The doctor thought I may have cancer. My friends came into the room to console me, but they were boys and were completely thrown off guard when I was crying. I called my parents and they came to the hospital (1 hr and 45 mins to get to Frostburg....normally 2 hours). I stayed in the hospital overnight. In the morning they did a full body CT and that is when we found the tumor in my right butt muscle. I also had over 15 tumors in my lungs.
My world was spinning. Life was a blur. What was in store? What was going on? Why Me? Why?
Well I don't really know where to start but I thought that a blog would be a great way to reach out to people and share my story (assuming people read it). My name is Lauren and I am a 24 year old cancer survivor. I feel like I should give some background before this blog can really be everything it could be. I think I will take you through my life little by little until we reach the present day. Then everything will be what is going on now. I have always loved making connections with people, and now I feel like I actually have a reason to. I hope someone gets something out of hearing my story.
Well I guess a good place to start would be with my family background. I have the best family ever! I have parents who are still in love after 30 or so years. I have grandparents who send love letters to each other when they are apart. Both my mom and dad are from families of 5, so I have a lot of relatives. I wouldn't have it any other way. Family is the most important thing in my life. I have an amazing sister who I could not love more.
I have always been the athletic type. I played softball as a kid, and fell in love with volleyball when I was 12. I played for the varsity team at my high school and went on to play ball in college. Now that I can not play anymore (we will get to this later) I coach.
I guess this is a good place to start my story. I loved college. I was on the volleyball team which was an instant set of friends. I decided to major in Physical Education and Health to be a teacher, I didn't know which grade yet. I had a boyfriend from high school when I first started college; however we ended up growing apart. It was probably the first week of classes when I met this boy at a party. The volleyball girls wen to the baseball house...trouble already. I met this boy Dan. We hit it off from the start. I did not want to rush into things so I went home and gossiped about him with my roommate...typical. Jodi would just listen and give her insight on the situation. I met Dan again in the parking lot one day at the cafeteria. We were both very excited to see each other. At the end of our conversation I told him to call me sometime and gave him my number. He called that night and we talked for hours. For the next 2 months things were perfect. Volleyball was great, I was playing right front and some back row if I got lucky. Dan and I were extremely happy with each other. Then reality struck.
I started to think to myself that I was just a freshman. I was not ready for forever with Dan (I knew that is what it would be), so I broke up with him. I needed to be on my own for a little to make sure Dan was really what I wanted. I asked Dan to wait, that I wanted to be with him but just not yet. He said ok...amazing right!!!
The holidays came and went. I met some other guys but they were nothing. I knew where my heart was. It was time to come back to school. It was hard to see Dan at the cafeteria and ignore each other. I had my friends and he had his. I was living the life somewhat. Weekends would bring great fun, and the weeks flew by. I found some of my best friends during this semester (you know who you are). Then it was time for spring break. I decided to go snowboarding for the weekend with a few friends. It was an amazing weekend. I really loved snowboarding and I had never been able to do it because of volleyball. However, at the end of the trip my right butt muscle was extremely swollen. My friends and I joked about how I had a half J-Lo butt...pretty nice going from nothing to half a butt. I did not think anything of it, I talked to a few doctors and they just thought it was a deep bruise. So I iced it and it eventually went down and the pain went away.
It was a few weeks later. I was eating pizza in my friend's dorm and reality struck again. I had been coughing up blood all day...don't freak out, it really wasn't that much. I just knew that it wasnt' right. I called my mom to tell her; which was strange because I am usually the kind of girl who would say "it will go away tomorrow". Mom of course was paniced. She asked if I had smoked anything....of course NOT TRUE. She told me to go to the ER right away. Disgruntled and scared, I did. My friends waited there with me...which was about 3 hours by the way. I eventually got a chest X-Ray and that is really when my world turned upside down. There was no more naive Lauren, no more "nothing will happen to me", no more being 18. The doctor thought I may have cancer. My friends came into the room to console me, but they were boys and were completely thrown off guard when I was crying. I called my parents and they came to the hospital (1 hr and 45 mins to get to Frostburg....normally 2 hours). I stayed in the hospital overnight. In the morning they did a full body CT and that is when we found the tumor in my right butt muscle. I also had over 15 tumors in my lungs.
My world was spinning. Life was a blur. What was in store? What was going on? Why Me? Why?
hey Lauren! Kerry Mauzy forwarded me the link to your blog November 2009! I finally just got around to reading it.. ( I know Im slow) I am so inspired by your life! Keep pushing girl!
ReplyDeleteKelli Butler