Interview with Jake Andrien

When you think about what makes a student great at Devon, certain words come to mind: bright, outgoing, gentleman, and well-rounded, among others. These characteristics fit Jake Andrien ‘21 perfectly down to the letter. In the classroom or out on the field, Jake always looked to improve in everything he did. His teachers loved having him in the classroom, and coaches say he was a fantastic teammate.

During his time at Devon, Jake was a member of the Bowling team and the 2019 State Championship Baseball team. But the pressure of a state championship or the stress of college applications could not prepare him for one of his biggest tests. This past June Jake was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Through months of treatment and prayers, Jake is now cancer free. Many of us have gone through this process, or know someone who has, and in this interview, Jake talks about what his experience was like and how he worked through it with the help of family, friends, and faith.

1) At what point did you feel something was wrong? And how did you feel about your diagnosis?

Around some time in April, I noticed that swollen bump on my neck. After questioning what it was, I later realized it was just a lymph node and it is a normal thing to have swollen. I just pushed it off thinking it would eventually go away. About a month later I noticed it hadn't changed at all, but I still wasn’t worried about it. When I was working out one day, I was doing an exercise and felt a slight pain in my armpit. Then I felt that same bump of a feeling in that area. At this point I was curious as to why my lymph nodes were swollen, and I knew that they only get swollen when you are sick but I haven’t felt sick at all. I started questioning it if it could have been from the vaccine that I recently got, because I did not know what it could possibly be.

Then a month later I had a doctors appointment scheduled for 2 days after my graduation just to get my physical for college, but I am family friends with my doctor and thought I would just ask him about these lymph nodes. The night before my physical I was talking to my uncle, who had Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was in college, about these lymph nodes and he was asking me if I've been experiencing any of these symptoms that he had before he was diagnosed because he knew that the doctors looked at his lymph nodes before his diagnosis but I did not have any of the symptoms that he was mentioning. The day of my physical I asked my doctor to look at the lymph nodes and he sent me for blood work and a chest X-ray. And that night my X-ray came back showing some bumps on my chest, but did not fully tell us what it was. But from that night until my diagnosis I told myself to expect the worse of whatever the outcome will be. I did this because I knew it would make it easier later when getting the news to keep a positive attitude.

The next couple weeks were just testing and scans. Then eventually I got a biopsy on the nodes in my neck and after that surgery they were able to diagnose me with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had to get a PET scan a week later which confirmed it was Stage 3. Everyone around me was devastated with the news, but I expected the worst from the beginning. So this made getting the final news easier. All I thought after getting the news is when can I start treatment. I was willing to take whatever treatment plan would kill this the quickest, no matter how aggressive the treatment was.

2) What has treatment been like for you? What do you do to stay positive?

I can not lie and say treatment was not difficult, because it was, I hated every day of it . But I did not want the people around me to know that because I knew that I would be able to handle it and allowing the people around me to know that I am fine allows them to feel better which is what I wanted people to think. After my first cycle, I was able to figure out what days were going to be my worst and it seemed that only the first day of the first 2 weeks of each cycle was the worst. After knowing that, I was able to set my mindset to “you just need to get through these days because you can handle all of these easier symptoms.” The way I stayed positive through this whole journey was being able to

realize before I started my treatment that staying positive is going to make this challenge so much easier to beat and to handle. Not staying positive would have made it so much harder on myself to handle, and I would not have been able to live the rest of my summer how I wanted. And I knew that sorrowing or not keeping this positive attitude because of being mad about having to deal with this is not gonna change anything, so I should just accept that I am going to have to do this and instead of being mad turn that into motivation to beat this cancer.

3) Talk a bit about your support system and your mindset through this process.

I can't even describe how thankful I am for all for the support that I received throughout this whole journey. I received so many thoughts and prayers from a substantial number of friends and family. People were even reaching out to me because they heard that I was going through all different prayer groups. Reaching all this support made me realize that I am not alone through this process because not only do I have all these people, I also have all these prayers going to God to help me through this. I never had any doubt because I knew He had my back. All of this support gave me more motivation to keep going and just think about the end result.

4) Has Devon had any impact on you throughout this journey? If so, explain.

Yes, Devon has had a great impact on me throughout this journey. Basically all of my friends in my graduating class all found out and reached out and gave so much support, I am so grateful for everyone in that graduating class. After everyone eventually found out, a couple of my friends organized a mass during the summer which was the last mass we had as a class before we all went to college but they dedicated this mass to me. I also am grateful for Father Asia and Father Shea for having this mass at Devon. I also received many thoughts and prayers from Mr. Aquilante, Mr. Kane, Mrs. Eshleman, and some of my teachers over the summer. Devon was a huge help and motivation because of all the people who reached out and showed that they cared about how I am doing and were all hoping for a good ending.

5) What has your college experience been like so far?

Being able to go to Temple allowed me to actually feel normal and feel like I could leave my treatment at home and live my normal life at college. It has really helped me to take my mind off of this and relieve all the stress.

6) What is a piece of advice you would give someone going through this process?

To keep a positive attitude and even though it sometimes may get hard, just remember that it makes a huge difference throughout the whole process. And to keep the mindset that even though treatment is tough, it is totally worth it for the end result.