I am Shauna Barron, a believer in Christ, wife, daughter, sister, dog mom, and friend. I also work as an oncology pharmacist for a specialty pharmacy that services cancer patients. While I have many roles, like most of you, being diagnosed with leukemia was not something I thought would happen at 41 years old. After all, I am a healthy, pain free lady who enjoys running, snowboarding, and being active. Honestly, this diagnosis came out of left field. I know in this life, I do have to face trouble and hardship but know that my hope, peace, and trust is in the Lord to sustain me and carry me through.
Currently, Sept 2022, I am about half way through my treatment journey for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) in starting my 6th cycle of 12 this week. Basically, CLL is a blood cancer that affects the lymph nodes in that old cells are somewhat “trapped” and not properly filtered out which causes swollen lymph nodes as well as abnormal blood counts. The exciting news is my current treatment regimen of IV Gazyva and oral Venclexta is working as most of my blood counts have become normal and recent Catscan shows most of my lymph nodes have shrunk in size. As a patient, this is exciting news!!
I look forward to sharing my journey with you and others. Please share with others who may benefit from my story.
I am thankful to God that through prayer from family and friends, I get to see great results from my current treatment and will continue to believe I am healed, even before fully seeing in the physical. I will be honest and say that the journey has not been easy.