"You have cancer," are the three words no one ever wants to hear.
When Air Force 1st Lt. Tyesha McBride heard them she was shocked. Cancer is a life-changing experience. Suddenly, your world is turned upside down, and the uncertainties of a cancer diagnosis seem overwhelming, but for McBride cancer was a challenge she knew she would overcome.
“Around July of last year I felt a lump in my neck and I thought to myself, ‘What the heck is this?’” said McBride, who is the 99th Mission Support Group’s executive officer here.
“I went to the doctor to get it checked out, and they did an X-ray,” she continued. “I got a call, saying that they thought they saw something in my chest and I needed to come in for a CT scan.”
Biopsy
The scan revealed a mass in McBride’s chest. The surgeon determined that she needed to come in immediately so that a biopsy could be done. When the results came back she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
According to the Mayo Clinic, Hodgkin's lymphoma, formerly known as Hodgkin's disease, is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune system.
“I was devastated,” she said. “I went home for the rest of the day and just slept. I couldn’t believe I had cancer because I felt okay and I had just taken a PT test that scored a 95 on, so it was a shock.”
It wasn’t until her first round of chemotherapy that it really sunk in for McBride.
“After my first chemo session that was when it hit me, ‘Oh my goodness I really have cancer,’” she said. “Then my hair fell out, which at first wasn’t great, but then it was kind of good because I didn’t have any hair to wash and I got to wear really cool hats and scarves.”
Keeping Positive
Although chemotherapy is rough, McBride always looks for the positive in things by seeing chemotherapy as just another step in overcoming cancer and being one step closer to being cured.
“I’m a carefree person,” she said, “so I just let things roll off of me. I immediately started a countdown of how many chemotherapy treatments I had left, which helped me get through it and also my family and friends encouraging me helped a lot.”
Beginning last August, McBride received chemotherapy treatments every two weeks, with each session lasting five to six hours. She arrived for her treatment at 8 a.m., and received her round of medications through a port hooked up in her chest. She completed her treatment last month.
“The sessions were draining,” McBride said. “I would just go home and sleep after.”
Chemotherapy’s side effects “were awful,” McBride said, noting she’d get sick to her stomach. McBride said she doesn’t want cancer to define her. She continues to work and live life as she did before the diagnosis.
Today, she is well on her way to remission and has plans to keep driving the mission forward.