This Thing Called "Lymphoma"

So what exactly is Lymphoma you may ask. I've never heard of this until last year, when we found out that the unassumingly harmless bump on my mom's armpit is actually a tumor. Categorically, lymphoma is a cancer of the blood.Or of the white blood cell to be exact.

Here's more on the matter form lymphoma.about.com:

Lymphoma is a cancer of lymph cells. Lymph cells (also called lymphocytes) are a type of blood cells that are known as white blood cells (WBCs). Lymph cells are found in blood and lymph nodes. In lymphoma, some lymph cells become abnormal, start multiplying quickly, and grow to form a cancer.

Cancer cells in lymphoma mainly gather in lymph nodes -- small structures present along blood vessels. As the cancer cells grow and multiply, the lymph nodes enlarge and form lumps. Most of the time, this cancer is detected as painless lumps in the neck, armpits or groin. Several other warning signs and symptoms of lymphoma include fever, weight loss and sweating at night. Lymphoma can also affect other organs of the body (besides lymph nodes) and give rise to a variety of symptoms that bring an individual to a doctor...........

.....Not much is known about the cause of lymphoma. Though some viral infections are known to cause this cancer, in most individuals, the reason for getting a lymphoma is unclear.

A more thorough explanation of Lymphoma can be found in here.

So lymphoma is a cancer but we never addressed my mom's illness as such. We just called it lymphoma not because we don't to seriously take the gravity of it. But we are more concerned on the sensitivity of using the word. We just want to avoid the alarming heaviness that the word cancer may bring to the situation. As they say "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". Despite the sadness we find comfort.For our adversity has made us stronger... together... as a family.After all, this is not our burden but more so a test.