If it hadn’t been for my mom, I might not be here today.

I thought I was in remission in the spring of 2008. I’d already completed six rounds of chemotherapy for T-cell lymphoma — a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma — near my home in central Louisiana.

But my mother, a registered nurse, insisted I go to MD Anderson. She knew I might still need a stem cell transplant, and my local oncologist didn’t do those. She made an appointment...