The first day he walked on campus as an American Career College student, Richard Rodriguez didn’t know what to expect. Before enrolling at ACC-Lywood, Rodriguez had worked at Disneyland for eight years and said the medical billing and coding program was a completely new environment for him.
“The program was a great experience. I became a student ambassador. I started doing all these activities and we became a big family,” Rodriguez said at a recent Inspire Club meeting.
“Unfortunately, while I was in the program I was re-diagnosed with leukemia. It was a breaking point for me. I had to decide if I wanted to continue with school or if I wanted to quit and get myself depressed.”
Rodriguez decided to tough it out. He spent the short days of winter either sitting in class or chemotherapy, sometimes doing his homework during the sessions.
"December, January, February — those were the worst months of my life," he said. "I had to stop coming to school for a few days, but I continued working on my degree. I continued to be here, come in with my pain. I sat through the whole course with pain but I never gave up because I wanted to make my family proud of me."
Rodriguez said he was lucky to have support both at home and at school. His biggest inspiration, he said, was his family — especially his mother.
"My mom pushed me through a lot of stuff," he said. "She’s been there, she sweat with me."
At school, Rodriguez said he knew he could always lean on Lara Chahinian, ACC-Lynwood's medical billing and coding program director.
"If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here right now, talking to you," he told the other Inspire Club members.
By June 2015, Rodriguez had begun his externship at Lasik Eye Center. He described it as "wonderful," but had to stop due to poor health.
Rodriguez took a few months off, went back on chemo and said he started to "do a lot of stuff to recharge myself, because I was not going to let cancer beat me.”
In January 2016, he was hired by LA Care as a customer service specialist. Three months later he was promoted to team leader and now is working towards becoming a certified medical biller and a supervisor.
Most importantly, Rodriguez is cancer-free again and attributes much of his recovery to his optimisim and his many sources of inspiration.
“Don’t let fear take over your life," he told the Inspire Club members. "Always get up with a positive attitude and you guys will make it through. I made it. This is the second time I’ve been diagnosed with leukemia and I’m here. Usually people don’t make it the second time through with leukemia. It’s the final battle and I actually beat it again."
