Students stay positive while fighting cancer

<p class=”p1″>The word cancer can strike fear into the heart of anyone, and in some people’s minds, cancer is synonymous with a death sentence. Some students on campus are fighting the disease every day, and focusing on school to feel like everything is normal. </p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>Meghan Peterson, a senior studying exercise science, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer on April 1, 2011. Peterson was at a doctor’s appointment when her doctor began to suspect cancer in her thyroid.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“The doctor just didn’t feel right about it,” Peterson said.  “They did a biopsy and an ultrasound. I had five lumps in there that were golf-ball sized, but they didn’t find those until the surgery, and they were hidden, like they probably shouldn’t have been found.”  </span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>Peterson completed a round of radiation and had to be quarantined from all people for a week because of the chemicals in her body. They killed the cancer cells but posed a danger to other people, Peterson said.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“So I was super lucky that it was just a small treatment, but luckily chemotherapy isn’t necessary for my kind of cancer and it killed the cancer cells the first round,” Peterson said. “It could always relapse, but I was extremely blessed.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>Kit Johnson was diagnosed with melanoma when he was 13 years old.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“The next day I went to school and I didn’t want to tell anyone,” Johnson said. “I didn’t really remember anything I learned. I just kind of walked around school taking mental pictures of things that I liked. My friends could kind of tell something wasn’t right.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>Then came a number of tests and doctor appointments at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. He had surgery to remove the melanoma from his neck, followed by a year of chemotherapy treatment with three injections every week.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“This boosted my immune system to look for stray cancer cells and things like that,” Johnson said.  “Since my immune system was busy doing other things, I didn’t have the best kind of health.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>Johnson said he had to miss large portions of junior high and high school due to treatment and doctor’s appointments. His cancer returned while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland and Scotland.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“At first I just wrote it off a little bit, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” he said. “I thought it was just <span>greenie</span> stuff. I got through my training and I started training a missionary right after me. I really wasn’t feeling good and I wanted to be an example for that missionary, so I decided to push myself.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>After a few hospital trips and an MRI, Johnson found out the cancer had returned. Johnson had to put off going to school to do treatment that included removing a tumor from his lung and an adrenal gland, as well as a round of treatment with a tumor-shrinking drug before it could be removed.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>With his last round of treatment last week, Johnson is looking forward to snowboarding and returning to school in the fall. He wants to major in economics.</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“My friends are in school and they look like they’re having a good time,” he said. “They would want me to be with them, but unfortunately I’m not able to do that yet.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>“This whole time I’ve had a purpose, but I haven’t had control over it,” he said. “I can come to school and get good grades. I have control over that. I’m excited to have some control and structure in my life.”</span></p>

<p class=”p2″><span class=”s1″>To read the rest of this article in its entirety, visit the <a href=”http://www.usustatesman.com/students-stay-positive-while-fighting-cancer-1.2804400#.UPmoO_JZOSo” target=”_blank”>Utah Statesman website</a>.</p><p class=”p2″></span></p>

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