Ask any cancer survivor and they'll tell you battling the disease can be both physically and emotionally exhausting. You probably didn't know it, but one of our staff members has been bravely battling lymphoma during the past several months.

Karen says, "Every time I come home from work and take my wig off I'm reminded once again that this is something I had to go through. I won't forget, I'll never forget."

When Karen graduated from Kent State University in 2002 she was dreaming of a career in television news. A few months later she landed her first job here at NewsChannel Seven. Everything was going just as she planned until she started having chest pains and difficulty breathing.

Dr. Chong Chin Lee, a cardiovascular surgeon at Marshfield Clinic Wausau Center, says, "The ER physician ordered a chest x-ray which was abnormal, and that led to a cat scan which showed an abnormal mass in the chest."

He says the mass was actually about the size of a peach.

"That's a fairly large mass, and obviously pretty scary to a young person."

Karen underwent surgery to find out exactly what that mass was. A biopsy confirmed Karen had a type of lymphoma known as Hodgkin's disease. Fortunately it was still in an early stage.

Dr. Rezwan Islam, an oncologist, hematologist at Marshfield Clinic Wausau Center was hopeful from the beginning.

"Hodgkin’s lymphoma, if they have stage 1-2A disease there is a 90-95 percent chance of cure."

The next several months were filled with difficult chemotherapy treatments, but through it all, Karen was determined that cancer wasn't going to get in the way of her dream of being a newscaster.

She says, "We made sure treatments fell on a Friday, that was every other Friday, so I’d miss that Friday and have the weekend to recuperate."

But aside from the nausea and fatigue, there was another side effect that Karen feared even more.

"I hate to sound superficial, but all I kept thinking about was my hair falling out. I was just diagnosed with this terrible thing and all I could think about was losing my hair. I'd get up in the morning and get ready for work and I'd brush my hair, and clumps of hair would come out in my brush and it was awful,” Karen remembers. "It's the most outward sign that lets people know you have cancer, and I'm stubborn and I didn't want that to be known, especially in my field of work."

Eventually, Karen decided to have her hair cut short and found a wig that matched the way her hair usually looked.

"Everything was fine, no one looked at me different, nobody treated me different, after that process I was okay,” she says.

After chemotherapy, Karen underwent four weeks of radiation treatments five days a week usually early in the morning before coming to work.

"This is a vacation compared to chemo, but it's not fun by any means, and the machine is rotating around you and you're strapped in on the bed,” she says.

Dr. Darryl Barton who works in radiation, oncology at UW Cancer Center, says, "There were a few occasions she mentioned to me. I guess she was in a hurry to produce the news. Later on I tried to catch the newscast."

Now Karen goes back to the clinic for regular checkups. That means having lab work done and x-rays of her chest, something Dr. Islam says will happen often for awhile.

"She has a very good overall prognosis and we will follow her every three months for the first two or three years, and then see her every six months and then yearly after five years."

While we were talking with Dr. Lee, Karen's latest x-rays arrived. Dr. Lee pointed out the good news.

"If you look at this, this is pretty obvious, these were the surgical clips that I placed during surgery, but you can see it's pretty much gone.”

Karen says, “Yeah, you can see and the lumps are gone."

Karen says, "I remember talking to Dr. Lee about it being the size of a peach. Who knew? It feels good not to see anything."

Now with the worst behind her, Karen says her battle with cancer has changed her entire outlook on life.

"There's a song on the radio, it's by Leeann Womack and it's called ‘I hope you dance,’ and you know if there's any advice I could give it's to keep dancing. A strong mind is the best medicine out there, I'm convinced of that."

For more information about lymphoma, log on to the American Cancer Society's Web site at www.cancer.org.