In May 2019, a few days after my son’s high school graduation, I woke up to a large lump as hard as a tennis ball on my side. My family and I thought it was a hernia.

I called my doctor and scheduled a CT scan. A biopsy confirmed my diagnosis: aggressive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In addition, I had a handful of extra cells called Burkitt's lymphoma. My cancer was in my inguinal lymph node...