Cheryl Bergemann lost her hair within 10 days of starting chemotherapy. On Tuesday night, she planned to be at Petco Park in San Diego, hoping to watch the Milwaukee Brewers finish off a playoff sweep of the Padres. For the Sheboygan woman, the trip wasn't really about baseball at all — it was about marking the end of a fight she started back in March.
A March Diagnosis Led to Five Rounds of Chemo
Bergemann was diagnosed with lymphoma in March, according to TMJ4 News. She went on to complete five rounds of chemotherapy, treatment that cost her her hair within the first 10 days, the station reports. Through it all, she said she tried to keep a positive mindset even as the disease upended her daily life.
She credited her husband, Rocky, with getting her through the hardest stretches of treatment. “He was my rock, through the whole thing,” Bergemann said, per the same report. The couple decided that once she reached the other side of chemo, they would celebrate in a big way — with a trip timed to baseball's postseason.
Five Days in San Diego, Centered on a Brewers Game
Cheryl and Rocky Bergemann planned a five-day trip to San Diego and bought tickets to Tuesday night's Brewers-Padres playoff game at Petco Park, according to the station's report. “We came out here just to celebrate being cancer-free,” she said. Beyond the ballpark, the itinerary includes stops at the San Diego Zoo and the USS Midway Museum, the outlet notes.
The timing lined up with a Brewers team riding high entering Game 3. Milwaukee had won the first two games of the best-of-five National League Division Series and was trying to complete a sweep that would send it to the National League Championship Series, per the same account. Bergemann said she was curious to see how many fellow Brewers fans would be in the stands at Petco Park, and she made clear her hopes did not stop at one series — she wants to see Milwaukee clinch the NLCS and said she cannot wait to get to the World Series.
The Padres Faced Long Odds in an Elimination Game
San Diego was staring down history. Entering Game 3, only 10 MLB teams had ever climbed back from an 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series, according to NBC San Diego. Had the Padres won both games at home, the series would have been forced to a deciding Game 5 back in Milwaukee on Friday, the station reported. As Axios pointed out, the matchup pitted two franchises — Milwaukee and San Diego — that have each never won a World Series.
Josh Steiner, a Brewers supporter back in Wisconsin, said he would love to be in San Diego too, telling TMJ4 he didn't expect the series to stretch to a Game 4 or Game 5. He said watching the Brewers close out the Padres in San Diego would be great.
What Comes After Remission
Bergemann's celebration arrives at a point survivorship experts describe as uncertain by design. The Lymphoma Research Foundation defines a cancer survivor as anyone from the moment of diagnosis through treatment and for the rest of their life — meaning the label doesn't expire once chemo ends. The foundation also notes that no standardized guidelines currently exist for how often lymphoma survivors should be monitored for recurrence or for late effects of treatment, leaving much of that follow-up care to individual judgment between patients and doctors.
The foundation points to National Cancer Institute data showing five-year relative survival rates of nearly 87 percent for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, 88 percent for Hodgkin lymphoma and 73 percent for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It also notes that healthy lifestyle choices — eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising, not smoking and limiting alcohol — can lower a survivor's risk of developing late health effects from treatment. For Bergemann, though, the number that mattered most this week wasn't a survival statistic. It was the two wins already on the board for her Brewers, and the chance to watch for a third from a seat at Petco Park.
