StephCarter
StephCarter
Survivor: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (Stage II)
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Portsmouth, SC
Female
About Me
My Journal
I am a Survivor
Type of Cancer
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (Stage II), 2012
My story
December 21st, 2013

I feel like my story is very simple. I was serving in the navy at the time when i had to be on the ship over night. I was already upset because i hated being in the ship all day and night with no food because the galley was closed ship you had to bring your own food. Well anyways i was down on the 8 deck of the ship can't go down much further and decided to take a nap between doing nothing and more of doing nothing. When i heard up (was an amazing nap) i felt this lump in my throat. I ran to my car to get some water and it was hard to swallow. I called my mom and looked in the mirror a few times to see what it was. From what i could tell it was just a swollen tonsil. Write by no big deal it will go away on its own. That Monday i decided to go to ship medical just to get some drugs and see if maybe they know something i don't. Well that was a waste of time. They gave me these huge house pills i could barley swallow and kept telling me to come back week after week. One day something changed i woke up crying i knew something was wrong with my body. I got ready for work anyways my uniform on and attempted to brush my teeth. It had gotten bigger and i kept gagging on it making harder for me to brush my teeth even eat. So that day i was late i don't remember why but i was really upset. My chain of command wanted to write me up but being the woman i am i started crying and demanded to go to the hospital. (I got out of the write up) when i was at the emergency room they treated me very kind and made me feel like everything was going to be okay. After 6 doctors and 3hours in the er they sent me to ent to see a throat doctor. Still no scared guess it didn't register something was wrong yet. I sat there a few more hours seen 4more doctors then the nurse comes in tells me "so since thanksgiving is on Thursday your going to have surgery Friday" i looked at her like "whatttttt" surgery for what?? I did all my paper work and left no big deal just excited about getting 2weeks off of work. So surgery went go and i felt 100 times better. The surgery want as bad as scribe told me it was but I'm super positive so i think that's what made the difference. 10days later i get a phone call from the doctor and he asked me do i like news sitting or stand. I thought that was weird so i stood up. He said "okay well i hate to do this over the phone but your tonsil um that's was a tumor. Not only that it was cancerous." I sat down looked art the phone.he asked if i was still there i could barley speak. Me this steph carter. This girl whos only 22.. no way i thought. Cant be me im young and beautiful im in my prime. I still hasn't had children. This is impossible. Told him thank you after my brief disbeliefand told him i would see him on Friday. I sat on my bed for 10 minutes in silence listening to the people laugh in the hall wishing i was the one laughing and having a good time. 

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