From chemo to college: Aiden won't quit

RONAN – Aiden Reichman is at the threshold of adult life. The 19-year-old college sophomore is a week from moving into his dorm, a few weeks from starting his 16-credit semester.

But this fall might be considerably more difficult for the Ronan High School graduate who was also the first ever RHS recipient of the Senate Youth Program Scholarship. Instead of gearing up to meet President Barak Obama, like he did in 2013, Reichman is gearing up to stay well enough to survive his Political Science classes while undergoing his second round of chemotherapy.

In the spring of 2013 Reichman traveled with Montana U.S. Senator Jon Tester and then-Senator Max Baucus to the White House where he met foreign ambassadors, political pundits and President Obama.

While visiting home during the spring 2014, after his University of Montana sophomore year schedule was planned, Reichman came to his father, Mark Reichman, with an odd question. “What is this?”

Mark Reichman, a Mission pediatric nurse, took a look at the odd lump on his son’s throat, told him it was something he’d never seen before, and sent him to his UM doctor.

One doctor led to another, which led to tests and scans.

By summer, Reichman was undergoing his first round of chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It was an aggressive two-week course that stopped Reichman in his tracks and made his parents begin thinking about how their precious son would get through the next two sets of chemotherapy and still complete his coursework.

“The effects of the chemotherapy are cumulative,” Mark Reichman said. “When you are in chemo you take two steps back and one forward.”

But Reichman won’t accept an academic setback. He wants to be a senator some day and he’s in a hurry to get to the political fight.

“When you are confronted with something like this it’s either fight or die,” said Reichman. “Between those two choices, I’d rather fight.”

But the chemotherapy is taking its toll.

“I’ve completed one round and I’m halfway through the second round,” he said. “So far it’s been waking up with nausea, hair loss and fatigue...I am starting to notice the accumulation.”

Reichman said the first round is easier than the second and third round.

“After the first treatment there wasn’t any side effects other than I was not as hungry as often,” he said. “Definitely, it starts to accumulate, you start waking up sick to your stomach.”

The good news is that Reichman’s doctors believe he has a 99-percent chance of a full recovery.

“Because it was very early detection and aggressive treatment they believe he has a 99.99-percent chance of making a full recovery,” Mark Reichman said.

Though Reichman’s scholarship was only for his first year at UM, Tester is watching Reichman, who insists on moving onto campus with everyone else and beginning class on time, has a dorm room close enough to his studies and the ability to get where he needs to go.

“That’s actually been a quite pleasant surprise,” Reichman said. “The general public has a typically disapproving view of politicians but that’s only deserving of some. Senator Tester has been very supportive.”

Still, the bills are mounting fast. Even with medical insurance, the Reichman family is beginning to swim in debt. That’s why about 300 people came to Aiden’s Benefit Concert, spaghetti dinner and silent auction at the Elks Club in Polson Aug. 16.

“We earned just under $1,200,” Mark said.

The money will pay for school and medical bills above and beyond Reichman’s 50-percent insurance coverage.

Reichman will begin his second round of chemotherapy from is dorm room in the next few weeks.

Hodgkins Lymphoma is an aggressive cancer involving the lymph glands in the neck, under the arm and in the groin, Mark said. The lymph glands help the body’s chemicals travel around, which is why the cancer can spread quickly.

Contact Mark Reichman at 552-8665.