Lynn Tidlund Weeden was going about her life as usual, running her home daycare business in Massachusetts and spending time with family when she noticed small changes in her health.
She was having night sweats, stomach pain and wasn’t feeling like herself, so she went to the local hospital to get checked out, she said in a TikTok.
After doctors visits and testing Mrs Weeden discovered she had late-stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in March 2022. Immediately, she was devastated and shocked, but she would soon not be alone in her fight.
Just four months later her husband Bill was delivered similar devastating news when he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.
Over past two years, the couple, who married in October 2022 after 11 years together, has fought through chemotherapy sessions, bone marrow transplants and experimental immunotherapies, all the while managing to support one another.
Lynn and Bill at their wedding in October of 2022. The couple had been together for 11 years
When Lynn initially went to her local hospital, doctors performed a CAT scan and the medical imaging revealed a huge lump had taken over her spleen.
They immediately referred her to a larger hospital for care.
After a week of tests they discovered the mother-of-three had Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is a common form of the disease, with more than 81,000 Americans diagnosed each year. It affects the parts of your body where lymph tissue is found – such as around the chin, armpits and groin.
When it’s caught and treated early, people with NHL are 73 percent as likely as healthy people to live for the five following years, according to the American Cancer Society.
But if cancer is more advanced, as it was in Lynn’s case, the survival rate drops to 58 percent.
Lynn immediately began treatment, which consisted of six months of chemotherapy.
By June 2022, however, doctors discovered the chemo wasn’t working against her disease.
A scan revealed Lynn’s spleen was about eight times bigger than it should be. A normal spleen weighs about 6oz but Lynn’s was three pounds. So her doctors said she had to have it surgically removed.
The spleen filters toxins from your blood and helps you fight off infection, Dr Elise Merchant and Dr Wendy Stead wrote for Harvard Health.
Since other organs in the body, like your kidneys and liver, perform similar functions, it is possible to live without a spleen.
But you may be more at risk for severe complications from infections that other people can easily fight off, like pneumonia, Dr Merchant and Stead wrote.
The doctors told Lynn’s family she’d be in for about a six-hour surgery. But eight hours after opening Lynn up, they discovered the fatty tumor had wrapped itself around her diaphragm, so they had to bring in a specialized surgeon to reconstruct the area.
‘I came out of surgery in the worst pain I had ever had. I had chest tubes. It was just horrible, it was horrible,’ she said.
After this, things were clear for a few weeks. But in late July, Bill started throwing up blood, Lynn said.
Lynn and Bill were diagnosed with cancer four months apart
Reminiscent of Lynn’s cancer journey, the construction worker went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia after a series of tests. Lynn hasn’t specified what form or stage of the disease he was diagnosed with.
Bill was moved from their local hospital to Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston and immediately put on a ‘heavy regimen’ of chemotherapy as he entered into the search for a bone marrow donor.
While Bill’s exact diagnosis is not clear, generally, adults who treat their leukemia early enough are 65 percent as likely as healthy people to live for the five following years.
Approximately 62,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia each year, and 23,600 die from the disease, according to the ACS.
Aside from chemotherapy, one of the most effective treatments for leukemia is a bone marrow transplant. For months, it seemed Bill would remain amongst the 7,500 of Americans waiting on a donor match.
But right before Christmas, he found someone who was willing to donate to him and the transplant took place in January.
Since then, Bill has continued chemotherapy treatments and has had to travel back and forth to Boston almost daily for months. He’s been laid off of his construction job as a result, causing the couple to lose their insurance coverage.
In the years since their initial diagnoses, both Lynn and Bill have stopped working – leaving them with medical bills in the hundreds of thousands, Lynn shared in a GoFund Me.
They are unable to pay bills and are afraid they might lose their home as a result.
But even in the face of this adversity, Lynn said they continue to fight together: ‘This is the start of our journey, we are still fighting.
‘We are struggling, neither one of us are working and it’s been very, very hard on us. We’re afraid our going to lose our home, the one we’ve worked our whole lives for. I never wanted to ask people for help.’
Still, their treatment continues.
Mrs Weeden said she’s currently undergoing an experimental form of cancer treatment, called CAR-T therapy, which uses the body’s immune system as a weapon against cancer.
Bill is still undergoing treatment as well.
Through it all, they’ve had each other. But in her TikTok, Lynn shared the couple’s journey hasn’t been easy .
‘Being our support system for each other, which was hard many days because we got very frustrated with each other, but we hung in there’ Lynn shared.
However, even with the stress of their debilitating diseases and the financial strain that comes with it, they take comfort in each other and in their faith.
Lynn added: ‘There is a God. Keep your strength to keep your faith he’s with you.’
