Amy’s story
I was 40, fit, and working full-time when I was diagnosed with classical Hodgkin lymphoma.
The only symptom I noticed was a lump in my neck. I may not have thought anything of it, but it was on my radar because a colleague, who was the same age as me, had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
Waiting for the biopsy results was terrible. I was on holidays for the first 10 days, and tried to put it to the back of my mind. About 12 days after the biopsy, I called my GP and they tracked down the results.
The diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma came just as I was about to start IVF, so this felt like a double whammy. I spoke to my haematologist about delaying the start of my treatment until I could harvest some eggs. Fortunately, for my type of cancer, I was able to do this. My eggs were harvested on a Friday and I started chemotherapy on the following Monday.
I was on a clinical trial for BEACOPP – a combination of chemotherapy drugs – which aimed to reduce the treatment time to only 3 months.
A port-a-cath was inserted so I didn’t need to have a cannula put in every time I had the chemo. I found the insertion painful, but it was beneficial to have the port throughout the treatment.
I continued working through the treatment, and this was challenging. The nausea and anxiety on treatment days did increase as each cycle progressed. I found it difficult to manage, particularly on the second day of the chemo cycle when they give you a drug known as “the red devil”. I also had really low energy levels and needed a blood transfusion.
I am in clinical remission and my PET-CT scans have all shown that the treatment was successful. I’m still working and I’m back at the gym, but the brain fog is lingering.
The only symptom I noticed was a lump in my neck. I may not have thought anything of it, but it was on my radar because a colleague, who was the same age as me, had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
