My name is Patrick Cook I am 42. I got to be 43 in a couple of weeks. And I am married. I am a runner. Marathoner. Trail runner. Weightlifter and cyclist. Not really a cyclist anymore but those are my hobbies. Well, I was training for a marathon and I was looking to Boston qualify and I was out running. And that's when I found when my breathing started to get heavy and I couldn't continue my run. So that changed. I couldn't attempt to Boston qualified for the year 2021. This happened in 2020. I couldn't compete in the marathon in 2020. As someone that's always been athletic I never a cold has never or a cough has never knocked me down before. I always trained through it. I always pushed for it. But this was just different. I had to stop and that's never happened before so I was so lost on what was going on with me. so it drew awareness. I just didn't know what was going on. Like, I felt a little something in my chest but I thought it was a cold or an allergies and it was just after two miles. I just said, I have to stop. I was like, okay, I'm going to take a break and come back tomorrow. But in my mind, I was. This is very, very strange for it to make me stop. The next day I was still filling. I tried to run and I just I just didn't have it in me. Which is rare. So I hopped on my bike on the trainer and I still felt the breathing issues, but it wasn't as bad. And so I kind of said, okay, maybe it's just a bad cold or something. We went to all we celebrate our anniversary we went out to dinner and the next morning we caught a flight to Santa Fe, New Mexico which has really high altitude. And it got way, way worse because I think I chalk it up to the lymphoma and high altitude. We came back to Houston and it did get a little better. So I kind of chalked it up. I was like, okay, well, it's not allergies because we went to a different part of the country that doesn't have many trees. So I thought maybe it was our trees came back and it got a little better and but it still never went away. it I think I don't have a timeline in front of me but I finally caught a doctor and he said it was I developed asthma and then I just said, okay I have asthma. And that went on to the next step. I because my mom, had asthma when I was a kid. So I figured I'm like, okay, it's asthma. Let's get it taken care of. Give me the medicine I need to get back to my life. This was during COVID. COVID started. The whole pandemic started actually as we were getting on the plane from New Mexico back to Houston. So he goes, I'll give you some medicine. It sounds like it's asthma. So he prescribed asthma medicines with the spray and it never did anything. Actually, I think it made it worse. I started getting gradually worse. And then I called him again because I'm gonna give you more medicine. And it kept getting worse. And then by this time he said, okay, I need it. They're allowing us to see patients now. So you come in. I'm gonna give you an asthma test. An allergy test you gave me as my test. He goes, I don't think you have asthma. And he made me go to a machine. And what not. And then he gave me allergy like an allergy test. he goes, I'll have these results to you in a couple of days but I want you to go take an x ray. So he sent me to the hospital down the street to get an x ray. I went home and I got a phone call saying, There's something in your chest. It could be cancer. It might not be cancer. But I want to give you a C.T.. I want you to go take a CT scan. This is the ante, by the way. And to be honest with you I'm a very optimistic person. I was like this is the end He doesn't know what he's talking about. There's something in my lungs or that I'll be back on my feet. No time to figure out what it is. Be back on my feet. No time. So I called to make an appointment. I really didn't. I really didn't think much of it at all. I called to make an appointment for a CT scan and everything was backed up because of COVID. So I think it took three weeks to get in. Two or three weeks. Went to go see a CT scan. And I wasn't very positive. I left because I left to get my CT. He went to work and the doctor called me and said This is serious. You either have lung cancer and a slight possibility of lymphoma. And I'm like, Really? He was if it's lung cancer it could be stage four. I used to smoke back in the day, and I grew up at a smoky house. I'm a Gen Xer, so everybody smoked in their houses back then. So I was there's no way I can have lung cancer. I run so much. I'm very active. It's been ten years since I smoked those. You'll be surprised. It can come back. It can come back and it can affect you later on. So I called my wife and I was like You need to come home. And I'm on my way home. We need to talk. And that's what I told her. And that we need to take further steps to figure out what's wrong with me. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. She when she walked the door, she knew something was wrong and it was pretty bad. They hit connectome to come along. Doctor. I don't know how to pronounce it. And at Methodist Hospital in Houston and to do a scope of what they call it, bronchoscopy. So COVID times, it took, I think, two weeks to get in to him and it got bronchoscopy. He called me the next day and said, I don't think it's lung cancer but we can't get it out. I do not find any trace of lung cancer in your lungs but I'm pretty sure it's lymphoma. I, I heard of a coma. I just never knew what it was. And I started doing research and my grandmother passed away after four years of battling leukemia. Ten days before I started my killing my cough in my by shortness of breath. So I was like, okay. And he didn't tell me what kind of level it was. I was 48 hours, 39, I'm sorry. And they said, usually Hodgkin's lymphoma is for younger affects, younger people, 35 and under. So I was like, oh, so I might have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is the chances of living is a lot less than Hodgkin's lymphoma. of course, that was you know, going through my head. the next step was going to an oncologist. It was that. It was that Methodist. It was actually a next door over. I he set me up with an oncologist and a cancer surgeon so they can just in case they have to do biopsies and whatnot. I met up with the surgeon and the oncologist at the same time. It was usually I think it took like two weeks again for that. This whole process was pretty long. They did not have PET scan. And when I met my oncologist and the surgeon, this the surgeon was you feel this? And I'm like, yes, what is that? He goes, Bet your lymph node. I'm like, I never even seen that. He goes, That's right there. I'm pretty sure you have lymphoma. It was on my right side. And a my oncologist at the time said we can't cancel out lung cancer or even just static about cancer because statistically, cancer can come up and raise lymph nodes up here in your lung area. So they sent me up to do a biopsy on this lymph node right here. But I was so mean that I thought that that was part of my muscle after looking at I thought about was like my trap for a year. So I really didn't think much of it. And I never really heard of lymphoma. So I didn't I never had a swollen lymph node in my life. So I didn't think anything of it. I was like, This is interesting. And of course I went down the Google wormhole. He said, Well, he goes, I need to this is on a Friday. And he goes I want to have this surgery on Monday morning, Tuesday morning at the latest. You've been going to run around with this for too long now. We need to get you in. And I know COVID was an issue then but I was and I was a little better. I was there pushing back cancer patients for COVID. And I go, this is really unfair. So he goes I need to get you on Monday or Tuesday to have the biopsy on your lymph node right here. And they said he needs a COVID test but it can take a week for the results of the COVID test. He goes, I don't want it. I need him it. And they go We need to have a COVID test. And he goes, I don't want him to have the COVID test and wait that long. Hello. He got me. And anyways he knew instantly that it was harsh and the color and but they couldn't officially diagnose me. I had a follow up appointment with my with my oncologist that next Friday. So four days later and my wife and I are a nervous wreck. We were sitting there and my oncologist is a young she 30 I think she's like 38, very young very smart, very positive. Doctor. And we were sitting there and I just remember she opens the door really fast with a big smile on her face and says, I have good news. And my wife and I are like Does this mean it was totally something else? And she goes, It's it's Hodgkin's lymphoma. You're like, Wait, you stole the good news that I have cancer? You know, we knew I had cancer at the time. But she goes, it's really good news that Hodgkin's lymphoma not non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or even lung cancer or just such super cancer. So she goes, this is what we're going to do. We're going to get you started on chemo instantly. And she goes It was stage two, stage to be Hodgkin's lymphoma and we'll start you on chemo the following month, not the next Monday the following Monday, she said. Usually stage two be you go through 12 chemo within six months every two weeks and ABVD So the first four and they take out the B Leo, Leo myself and she was really adamant to give me because I do run a lot and I was a smoker in my twenties. So she goes, I want you off the bleomycin I, I told her, I'm like It's very important that I stay active and I, I still work. I want my life as normal as possible. And she was if we need to try to get you off the ice and after number four I was I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't scared. I was I was nervous, you know because your whole life you're taught chemo patients are just they're high risk. So I was nervous but I was very positive. I was like, I'm going to crush this thing. I was like, I'm on crutches and on my left and back to normal. I'm like, Do my best to do what I do on a daily basis and I'm not gonna let this put me down. So I walked in there with a positive attitude. The nurses love me. They're like, You were the happiest person here. They let my wife come with me in the first one because I think COVID cases dropped down in Houston a little bit. And so they go you can have your wife come in, which was really great. It was She sat with me the whole 5 hours. They took my lab work. They gave me the pre meds, and I felt I felt it kicking in instantly. As soon as I took the chemo I felt it instantly and it was like, Oh, this is not fun. And, and I think, yeah I was there till I got there at seven. I was there to 11:30 and there were they would come in every hour and replace that chemo bag with something new. First treatment. The second treatment I'm sorry was pushed back a week because my lab work was coming off. It was my liver enzyme. Those were really high end to end up being because I was taking valerian root. It's a sleep, not sleep able sleep or something you know, it's still one of my blood work but they wanted to make sure the chemo wasn't messing up my liver. So that was the only one that got pushed back a week. My gums were burning that that was the only side effect. I was nausea, of course and my gums were like the only side effect. I tried to take the nausea medicine and it didn't work. I think it made me feel a little worse. So I took on that one time and never took them again. The steroids would keep me up at night. I forgot to mention that the first two nights I would be wide awake with full energy because the steroids which they gave you before the chemo every Monday that I would go in, I would give me a Oh, okay. The week of treatment. I felt that. And then starting Friday afternoon, I would start coming back to life like my brain fog. I had brain fog. My brain fog was start going away and I would start getting a lot of the energy in. My nausea would go away. And usually by Sunday I was felt like I was back to normal again. And then my life would be normal for a week. And then Monday morning chemo and a week of feeling bad and a week of feeling good chemo. It was just like a big cycle. And despite every treatment that we kind of got worse and worse and worse, I just made myself. I was I do not want to sit on the couch and feel miserable. I want to go. And I felt it helped me more. My mental state. It gave me more positivity, it gave me more hope. And it was it put in my head, I'm beating this. And so it it it was just very I felt it was better for my mental being more than my physical pain I had. I wouldn't say I had moments of depression or anything. I, I think I stayed pretty positive and I did get upset a lot easier. Like I wouldn't say lose my temper, but I would I was a lot more sensitive. But when it come to like when when it came to mental health and depression I don't feel like I was really depressed at all. The whole thing. I actually think in a way it made me most depressed because it made me realize that I can still do almost everything I could have done my last chemo. I decide to take the week off work and I decided not to be active. I want to just take a break from everything and just relax. That last week was the worst I've ever felt I was sick the whole time and I was I wouldn't say I was depressed, but I was just I was not I was worse. I was just worse on every everything. And I think is because I sat on the couch and did nothing and I felt bad for myself. I had a scan at number four after number four. I'm sorry to see if I can get up. It taken out the blue at a PET scan. She the doctor said no more polio And then I had a CT scan after eight and there was, I think after eight. Yeah, actually it was there was no signs of cancer in me. And number eight and so at 12, in at eight I think they were gonna determine if I need a rate of radiology or not. Radiation. I'm sorry. And I didn't And then I, my last chemo was November 31st in my insurance. Want to wait six weeks before I had my next scan and I believe it was a PET scan. So I had my PET scan six months later I think of January 16th and it was all clear I was with my wife or my car on a Zoom upon with my doctor because they were back in COVID protocol. It kept rising and going down, whatever and which I was kind of happy about that. And my wife was able to be with me because she before she couldn't go with me to doctors appointments. So it was a great it was a great moment. I was in my truck outside of my work, on my lunch break with my wife. And it was such a great feeling. It was one of the best things I heard in my life. She teared up, so she was really happy. Of course, it was a journey. The day that she told me that I had no signs of cancer I made sure I was signed up for the next marathon and I completed the Houston marathon one year and one day after she told me I was cancer free. So I jumped right into her saying, You're no signs. Actually, after my last chemo I kind of started getting really, really active. Probably too active more active than I should at. But then right when she told me that I was cancer free and I went all out, it was really great. It was it was a great and I was mad of myself because I didn't hit my goal. I'm very competitive but deep down it was one of my proudest moments beside marrying my wife. It was probably my most proudest moment. you just don't hear about that many people beating cancer and then it's people think that their life is over afterwards and it's not. I was 40 years old got through chemo and completed a marathon work. I got a scan after about one year everything was good and my oncologist said I just need bloodwork for for Hodgkin's. And of course, every oncologist has a different opinion some one every year for the first five years. She said, I don't have to. I can if I want. I opted out on my two year scan just because my bloodwork came back good and I feel great and I've heard from if you try to minimize as many scans start to minimize scans because they can they're not the best for you. My advice is listen to your body. If your body tells you let's get up and move. Even if it's a little bit, do it. It will bring up your spirits. And just because you can't do something traumatic does not mean your life is over. You're you still can get after it and just do your best and the rest will come.
