Hank Green showing off all of his chemotherapy medications.Photo:Instagram/hankgreen
Instagram/hankgreen
Hank Greenis offering a glimpse of his ongoing cancer treatment.
On Tuesday, the novelist and YouTube star posted a video on Instagram of a row of medications he’s been prescribed since being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“I can’t believe I am taking exactly this number of medicines,” he added in the caption. “The first four are my chemo drugs. Two are anti-nausea. One is anti-anxiety AND nausea. One is for constipation (dirty girl) one is for heartburn and one is a steroid to fight nausea and feeling like complete crap on the day after treatment.”
One of his followers wrote,“Only you can take an experience like cancer, make it educational, and “fun”/disarming, AND the furthest thing from scary even though it’s one of the scariest things a person may go through. A true gift beyond talent.”
“Your humor through all of this is astounding 😂,” one person wrote while another commented, “God bless you, Hank. If laughter is the best medicine, you GOT THIS! 🙌”
Green first announced he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer, last month with a13-minute videoon his YouTube channel.
“So there have been a bunch of times over the last few weeks where this has become more and more real. This is the big one,” Green said.
“I noticed that my lymph nodes were big. I talked to my doctor. She said, ‘It’s probably nothing. We’ll send you in for an ultrasound.’ I got an ultrasound, and the tech in the ultrasound room was like, ‘I’m going to go get a doctor.’ That’s not what you want to have happened,” he continued.
According to the 15-yearYouTube veteran, he was immediately scheduled for a biopsy, which revealed the cancer diagnosis.
“When you’re in the American health care system, you don’t expect things to move quick,” he added. “That’s not what it does. That’s not what it looks like. When it starts to get a little efficient, it’s actually quite disconcerting.”
Some symptoms of lymphoma may include painless swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, or groin, fatigue, fever, night sweats, shortness of breath, weight loss, and itchy skin, according to theMayo Clinic. The lymph system plays a crucial part in the immune response, distributing white blood cells that fight infection to various parts of the body.
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At the time, Green admitted that he’s wasn’t “really looking forward" to starting chemotherapy, but he’s thankful to have a strong support system around him.
“All of the time that I have spent investing in friendships, and even when they have been hard, to try and keep them strong, and even when I have been busy, to try and spend time with them, has been joyful in the moment and wise in the long term,” he explained. “I’ve really needed friends in the last few weeks, and I’ve been very grateful to have them.”
“Even though I don’t feel bad at all right now except for some soreness because of the biopsy and maybe because my lymph nodes are big. I don’t feel any symptoms of this. I feel fine. I don’t even really feel fatigued,” expressed Green.
“I feel stress symptoms,” he joked.
The author has been active onYouTubesince 2007. He runs his social media channels and hosts podcasts with his brother John Green, author of"The Fault in Our Stars."
source: people.com
