Hey everyone! My name is Amanda, and this is my only daughter, Violette. I never thought I would be standing here today holding this beautiful, little girl, all because I had cancer throughout my young adult life. Today I am 28 years old, but my life almost ended at ages 21, 24, and 27. Every single one of those years, I had to fight for my life against a killer named Hodgkin’s Lymphoma… and let me tell you, it feels like I’ve been surviving a trilogy in a shitty slasher movie.

The first time I was diagnosed, I was about a month away from beginning my nursing program at school. I had been experiencing intense fatigue, chest pain, weight loss, and several respiratory infections with swollen lymph nodes. After several misdiagnosis, I was diagnosed with stage 2B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, meaning I had affected lymph nodes in my neck and both sides of my chest. I was given ABVD with steroids after several biopsies, surgeries, and a port insertion, but was advised by my oncologist at the time to decline radiation due to the increased risk of breast cancer. I reached remission, completed nursing school, and started working working as a cardiac-specialty nurse. When I turned 24, I began experiencing intense chest pain while I worked that became increasingly worse. A CT scan revealed that one of the originally affected lymph nodes in my chest suddenly grew massive. I needed two separate VATS procedures (thoracic surgeries involving chest tubes) in order to even reach the tumor for a biopsy, as it was located directly on top of my heart. Then I had a month of daily radiation with steroids. I was later told that I reached remission, and I was content. I eventually fell in love, and finally landed my dream job as an emergency-specialty nurse in Miami Beach by the age of 26. About 2 months later, I became pregnant with Violette. My boyfriend and I were ecstatic at the time, but I soon developed strange and uncommon complications of what everyone thought was a “normal” pregnancy. I began itching to the point where my skin had scratches everywhere. I had intense back and chest pain regularly, treated with antacids and Tylenol every 6 hours. I developed severe bronchitis. At 25 weeks gestation, I went to my own ER with severe chest pain, and an ultrasound revealed that I developed a massive pericardial effusion, going into cardiac tamponade. I needed to have a procedure called a Pericardial Window performed in order to remove over half a liter of liquid surrounding my heart. Before I went into the OR, I was asked to sign a consent for emergency C-section and hysterectomy, in case “the worse should happen”. There were about 100 of my coworkers in that OR, ready to try and save both mine and my daughter’s life. I was awake as they sewed an arterial line into my wrist, as well as a femoral line, because pregnant women should not have benzodiazepines. When I woke up after anesthesia, the first thing I tried to feel for was my child inside me. She was still there… but I had chest tubes, severe bronchial congestion, IV lines, a foley, an A-line in my wrist, and a femoral line. I stayed in the ICU. I was given steroid injections to make my daughters lungs stronger, in case she still needed to be induced early. I stopped working, and barely made it to my C-section at 37 weeks. By that time, it was clear that the cancer had returned, because the same mass sitting on my heart had grown so large that I developed Superior Vena Cava Syndrome and several DVT’s in my chest, arms, neck, and lung. Within a week, I had given birth, had another VATS procedure to biopsy, inserted a port into my leg, and began chemotherapy with immunotherapy. I declined a stem cell transplant because it meant I would be away from my newborn daughter for 3 months. I was at the darkest point in my life, because every day was a struggle to even Violette due to my many health issues.

Long story short, I waited out the cancer, I continued the treatments, and I let this strong little girl be the reason that I continued to fight. I wouldn’t be here without her, or my family for helping us so much throughout that time. In case you were wondering, Violette is almost a year old, and she’s perfectly happy and healthy. As for me, I’m going back to work as an ER nurse, going back to school for my Bachelor’s in Nursing, and I spend my free time personally speaking with hundreds of young adults with cancer to help raise awareness and support. It wasn’t easy, but I’m glad to say that I DID IT! My advice to anyone fighting a serious illness is that although there will be many hard days, there will eventually be better ones. The important part is to keep fighting for better days!

Please do not forget to vote for me on Best of Long Island. I am nominated for Holistic Wellness and Life Coach under the Health and Wellness category https://bestof.longislandpress.com/voting/#/gallery/?group=330484