Finding Lymphoma

In January i got back to work and my boss was scared how skinny i had become, i had lost more weight over christmas (i know who losses weight at christmas!)

she told me to go to the doctors to get checked out it was the 8th of jan

i went in and talked about the weight lost and the lack of appetite and the exhaustion/tiredness i was feeling, i spoke about my back pain, the doctor checked out my lymph nodes, n0 swelling, 

then i coughed he asked how long i had the cough for and i had said about 8 weeks so he sent me for a chest x ray.

on saturday i went for the chest x ray i thought they just find bronchitis or something like that. after the radiologist looked at the films they came to see me and were trying to get in touch with my gp to run a ct that day, he told me he thought it could be a typical pneumonia or another lung infection. he couldnt contact my gp so i was given the films and told to go to my gps asap on monday so he could order the ct. i read the report on my home and saw among the possibilities of pneumonia was lymphoma. a google search that night told me lymphoma is cancer and falls under blood disorders. i checked the symptoms and sore i had all the symptoms, so i was officially freaked out

on monday my gp ordered the ct. and i had it on tuesday. by tuesday afternoon my gp was saying lymphoma. (the 15th jan my grandfathers birthday)

and i was sent for a biopsy to confirm the next day. 

i had a fine needle biopsy on wednesday and my gp refereed me to a hematologist at RPA. that afternoon the results were back in saying inconclusive.

on friday i went to see my heam. she consulted with a respiratory  specialist who thought it might  be TB so the following tuesday i had a bronco-spy where they took biopsys from my lungs again inconclusive and no tb,

on wednesday i had pet scan that showed swollen lymph nodes in my neck, under arms, chest, lungs, spleen, stomach and surrounding my spine and my groin

on thursday (31st jan) i had a further ct and a biopsy on my groin

that afternoon i was admitted to hospital and lymphoma was confirmed 

hodgkins the next day.

while i was in hospital they started me on steroids, i had a bone marrow biopsy, a mri scan and a biopsy on the lymph nodes in my back. 

and i started chemo (6th feb)

i was officially diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma stage 4B

i was told ill need 6 months of chemo 6 cycles with two treatments in each cycle 2 weeks apart.

i have since had two full cycles, 4 treatments.