Kim was a caregiver for her sister while she battled stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma for nearly five years, from diagnosis through an autologous transplant. She turned her experience into change and has since become an activist in finding a cure for cancer. Kim has worked in politics and assisted in the passing of numerous legislative pieces impacting patients with cancer and their families. She is an activist in the field of oncology, nursing and beyond. Additionally, she is a volunteer and champion for a cure with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Campaign. Kim has shared her experiences with cancer as a contributor with Cure and through public speaking engagements throughout the United States.

Kim Johnson

It was difficult to watch my sister struggle with so many side effects throughout her Hodgkin lymphoma treatments. Ultimately, she needed the medications that were being dosed because they were what was treating cancer. Still, I would be lying if I wondered if the side effects were worth it. When my sister was enduring cancer for the first time, she had many side effects outside the norm. Many of the drugs she received caused the rarest of side effects, and so often, the treatments stopped working, and we were left to seek hope through experimental therapies.

So, we tried to find alternative ways to help her work through these side effects. We landed on one way that was an unexpected remedy for her. A common treatment-related side effect that my sister dealt with was nausea.

At the peak of her treatment cycles, she took upwards of 30 medications a day. Regardless of how often I questioned the efficacy of the treatments, I knew that her care team was utilizing modern medicine as best it could to treat her. Therefore, we tried to be creative regarding remedies and sought alternative treatments to make her feel better.When I say alternative, I do not in any way mean to suggest that we shunned traditional medications. What I mean is that we tried to use anything that would make getting through cancer a little easier for my sister. 

Like so many things about cancer, it is incredibly overwhelming. Most of what we came to learn about what was and was not sufficient to help my sister came through trial and error. So much about cancer requires one to be creative, have a different perspective, and be open to the concept of something altogether different. During cancer, I had to practice an entirely new level of open-mindedness because there were so many times that the norm did not apply to my sister.

When a suggestion that her care team gave us did not work, I would often turn to Google to research what other cancer patients and their families had tried hoping that the remedies they had tried would work for my sister. Sometimes they did, and sometimes they did not, but sometimes was better than no times. Initially, I tried the most offered suggestions I could find.

We tried the usual suggestions of peppermint candies, ginger drops, breath tabs and chewing gum. Sadly, none of them worked for her, and there were many times that she would take prescriptions of several anti-emetic drugs (anti-nausea and vomiting medications), but none of them worked. Instead, we used vanilla wafers, specifically generic vanilla wafers. I have no idea why that variety worked for her, but it did. And so, we used to keep boxes of these cookies in the house so that when she was nauseous, we would already have what she needed to feel better. This was the first unorthodox remedy and would not be the last.

Regardless of all the complications that my sister endured, I am still a huge proponent of modern medicine. Like everything we tried, we always consulted with her care team to ensure that what we were doing and trying did not affect the treatments she was given. Sometimes I thought I was silly for asking them; they appreciated the open communication, though, because it allowed them to monitor her better and gave them new suggestions to offer other patients who may have been experiencing similar issues that my sister was. I am also a big advocate of alternative remedies because cancer has shown me that sometimes the best approach is the one you may never have considered.

This article reflects the views of Kim Johnson and not of CURE®. This is also not supposed to be intended as medical advice.

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When my sister experienced nausea and vomiting during her Hodgkin lymphoma treatment, we tried alternatives that seemed to help.  

Finding Alternatives to Help With Nausea During Cancer 

Certain days around cancer have remained in my brain, but none more so than the day my sister was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, July 9, 2014, and her remission date, Jan. 14, 2016. Both days are important to me, whether you want to call them cancerversaries, as many do in the cancer community, or just anniversaries. Cancer is one of the more difficult things one can endure in life. Not every day is terrible, but the days are long and often challenging. To reframe cancer, not only for my sister but for myself, I tried to create celebrations to mark these anniversaries. To some, it may seem strange to celebrate cancer, and I agree. The thing is, it was not about celebrating her diagnosis or her having cancer. Instead, it was about celebrating how far she had come. That despite a devastating diagnosis, against all the odds, she had survived and reached or achieved another milestone.

Through the years, we marked these anniversaries in different ways. One year, we celebrated with a dinner out with just the two of us. Another year, we attended an event for cancer survivors at Flight Over the Rockies in Denver, Colorado. Like so much in life, it was not about what we were doing but about acknowledging the day and taking a moment to pause and reflect. During cancer, the conversations would be about how much had happened in the past 365 days and our hopes for how different life might be in a year from now.

For me, that second notion, a year from now, was a difficult one to wrap my head around. There were so many times during her first battle with cancer that we did not know she would survive. So, when we talked about a date far off in the future, I tried my best to hide my sadness from her and let her daydream of a time she may be in remission. Anniversaries took on a different tone when that day finally did come, and remission was achieved.

Reflecting on an anniversary without her actively fighting cancer brought tremendous joy and relief that cancer could now be discussed in the past tense. Gratitude for the miraculous outcome that nobody was expecting would become a reality. Furthermore, ironically, my sister and I spoke less about the future than when she was battling cancer. I think subconsciously, it happened because, instead of hoping for a cancer-free future, it was something we were now lucky enough to be living.

January of 2021 was five years since my sister received her bone marrow transplant, and once that day came, they deemed her not only in remission but cured. For this occasion, we got together for dinner to celebrate this huge milestone. Unbeknownst to either of us, just four months later, we would learn through a routine follow-up that while celebrating her cure date, cancer was growing rapidly within her and ravaging her all over again.

May of 2021 brought an official re-diagnosis of stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. Beyond wrapping our heads around the news, I have struggled with the anniversaries surrounding cancer in a way I had not before. Whereas the first time I was able to reframe and reflect, I found myself unable to do the same this time around. Ultimately it is like so much about my sister's original and second diagnoses; things are vastly different. Originally, marking anniversaries was beneficial then, they do not seem to be this time, which is OK. Accepting that reality has allowed me to acknowledge my emotions, note the significance of dates surrounding cancer and focus more on the present day.

My sister and I have learned to focus on the present day after a rollercoaster ride of remission, a cure and recurrence of stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.  

My Sister’s Cancer Anniversaries Are Days of Gratitude 

Although I am no longer my sister’s primary caregiver and cancer is not my everyday life anymore, the reality that she is dying from the disease is something that is never far from thought. This past week, my sister was hospitalized for a serious infection that resulted in a near-fatal event playing out. It caused a lot of reflection to occur regarding the past decade that cancer has been so pervasive in our lives.

Despite treatments that eventually led to an autologous bone marrow transplant and a remission lasting a little under five years, her Hodgkin lymphoma returned in May of 2021. And in all honestly, even during her period of remission, cancer was not a distant thought given all of the complications that she endured and the numerous cancer scares that we went through during that time.

It was such a long and difficult road for her to even be eligible for a bone marrow transplant that the entire process felt surreal. Once she was enduring that process, it still seemed like an impossible reality that she could survive and gain remission. Yet, against all odds, she did.

The thing is, to get her to a place where remission was attainable took ravaging her body with therapies that caused long-term complications and side effects. They caused infections and secondary illnesses that meant that, although she no longer had any active cancer in her body, the cancer still seemed to dictate a lot of our daily lives. We are approaching three years since she was re-diagnosed, and cancer is still an ever-present reality of life.

In late March, she was hospitalized with a recurrent, acute infection. It was determined after almost two weeks that she would begin hospice and we began to say goodbye. A dear friend flew in from New York to say a final goodbye, as well. And just as preparations were being made to transfer her to a hospice facility, a miraculous thing happened: she began to recover.

Throughout the past ten years, my sister has faced death on numerous occasions, but this is by far the closest she has ever come to dying. I have a tremendous number of emotions surrounding what played out, and while grateful that her time is not now, it is most difficult knowing that her time is nearing.

Although my sister has surpassed all timelines for how long she may live with cancer and beat death time and time again, the bleak reality is that she does in fact, have a terminal illness that will take her life at an earlier-than-natural time. It is difficult to put into words the optimism that occurs when a loved one surpasses expectations and beats the odds noted by statistics and providers. In a way, watching my sister be the exception to so much has painted a false reality that she is somehow not going to die from cancer. As an oncology nurse, I know that is not true and that she will, at some point, succumb to either the disease or a comorbidity of a secondary complication. For now, I am trying to live in gratitude that her time has not come yet.

Through so many cancer scares, I'm trying to live in gratitude that my sister's time is not now. 

Grateful for My Sister’s Life, Especially During a Cancer Recurrence 

So much about cancer is arduous, so I focused less on labeling something “good” or “bad” during the experience. For example, the build-up to a scan would come with anxiety and uncertainty.

Instead of waiting for the results, always unsure if they would be what we hoped for, we celebrated other things instead. My sister’s scans were scheduled between every therapy cycle. Upon completion of the cycle, we celebrated with something sweet. Sometimes that was a homemade pineapple upside-down cake, and other times a cupcake. No matter what, it was the gesture of surviving another cycle of treatment having been completed because that in itself felt like a victory worth celebrating.

When supporting my sister through cancer, I found it hard to see past the moment we were in. Even when good things happened or days did not seem so bad, cancer would slap you in the face with reality. As opposed to facing the entirety of the situation, approaching it in smaller, digestible forms proved beneficial — hence the importance of celebrating each victory.

Our celebrations went beyond ending a treatment cycle. They also included hospital discharges, surviving predicted perish timelines, ending every round of radiation and any treatments that my sister was able to complete in the cancer clinic that did not result in a hospitalization.

Cancer has this rippling effect in life; it alters our realities and it transforms relationships. Cancer steals away time and nearly every sense of normalcy that the patient and their closest loved ones and caregivers once enjoyed. Fighting against these realities can be exhausting and, at times, feel futile. As hard as it can be during cancer to pause and reflect, it is something that I think must be done. Days blur into each other, and it is easy to be swept up in all the comes with having cancer.

The bigger picture of getting cancer-free is always at the forefront of your mind, and it can be easy to lose sight of everything in between. The reality is that the days pass just the same. Cancer or no cancer, life continues to unfold, and it is essential to redirect our thinking. Celebrating victories that occur along the way gave my sister and me a new focus. That mindful shift led to a better avenue to channel our energies and provided small bursts of joy throughout a very challenging time in our lives — and it is something that I encourage others who are going though cancer to do for themselves or for their loved one.

Cancer-related can be consuming, so my sister and I make sure to celebrate the little victories along the way. 

Kim Johnson

Finding Alternatives to Help With Nausea During Cancer

My Sister’s Cancer Anniversaries Are Days of Gratitude

Grateful for My Sister’s Life, Especially During a Cancer Recurrence

Celebrate Small Victories With Cancer

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