Beyond being a Cancer Survivor, I am also a Military Veteran. I had been mobilized shortly after 9/11 to do a tour in Germany, and then in 2004, the call to support Operation Iraqi Freedom was ordered. It was at this time that I believe all the stress I was feeling started affecting my health. It was the weekend of Hurricane Katrina when I started feeling my first symptoms of my illness. I had severe night sweats, fatigue, low grade fever, unexplained weight loss and a horrible sore throat to where my tonsil enlarged to 4cm in diameter. The ENT, Dr. Watson, performed a tonsillectomy and pathology confirmed Diffuse Large B-cell non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Staging tests confirmed I was Stage 1. My cancer was a very aggressive cancer, thankfully caught in the knick of time. Needless to say, I never made it over to Iraq. I was put into remission on March 17, 2006…11 years cancer free!