After 5 months of waiting and longing, it was time for me to go back to USA and Daniel!
I was going to stay there for 88 days, for the whole summer! As a Swedish citizen, you travel under the VWP, which means that you don't have to apply for a tourist visa. The only thing you apply for is ESTA, which is an entry permit.
We had all kinds of plans for the summer. We would go bike riding, grow vegetables, go hiking and camping, and so forth.
But, our plans were going to get changed pretty soon.
In March 2012, Daniel had discovered a swollen lymph node on the left side of his neck. We thought it was due to allergies, and to an infected wisdom tooth that he had removed the same day as I came to USA for the first time in January. A swollen lymph node doesn't have to mean that it is something serious going on.
Time went by, but the swelling wouldn't go down.
Rather, it became bigger and bigger.
I arrived on June 3rd 2012, and Daniel had an appointment with a specialist
a couple of weeks later.
About 3 weeks after my arrival to USA, we got the test results, and we were informed that Daniel had cancer. The same week, they did a biopsy and after that we got to know that it was "T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma". It is a very rare and aggressive type of lymphoma, that only 2% of the diagnosed lymphoma cases consists of. This disease requires immediate and intense care, and 2 weeks after the biopsy Daniel started his first round of chemotherapy. The chemo he is getting is called "Hyper-CVAD" and it is the most aggressive form of treatment.
So, our summer didn't turn out the way we thought it would.
Who could have thought that it was cancer?
What would happen now?
And I, who was going back to Sweden in the end of August.
I couldn't possibly leave him now!
I started to research what alternatives I had, to be able to stay with him. The alternative was marriage, so that I then would be able to apply for "Adjustment Of Status". We decided to get married. But this wasn't something we rushed into without considering it. We knew what we wanted, and we had already planned to apply for a K-1 visa when I got back to Sweden.
We got married on July 24th in Mount Hollt, but we are going to do it all over again next year with a ceremony, in the US but also in Sweden.
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| July 24th 2012 |