Jean

A few days before Christmas 2022 I found a kidney bean sized lump in my neck. It hadn’t gone down a week later, so I saw the GP. He organised an immediate blood test and chest X-ray which were normal, but put me on the cancer pathway. I saw an ENT surgeon, had an ultrasound, MRI and a core biopsy of the lump. 

Neither of the scans looked suspicious, but the biopsy revealed that I had a likely B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A few weeks later the lump was removed under local anaesthetic and a further biopsy confirmed a diagnosis of diffuse large B- cell lymphoma. 

The diagnosis was half shock and half not shock. I am a bit of a Googler and had started to think it was either an infected lymph node or lymphoma, but then thought I was overthinking things. When I got the diagnosis everything clicked into place and I realised that I should have had more faith in my body for warning me that something was wrong.  

A PET/CT scan confirmed that the lymphoma was only ‘limited stage’ so I only needed three rounds of chemo instead of the more common six rounds. 

The chemo wasn’t too bad. I felt sick and had a headache the first night after each treatment, but to be honest I’ve had worse hangovers! I did get very tired and weak about seven days after each treatment, but felt reasonably well by the time the next treatment was due. My hair fell out, but that didn’t bother me at all. It grew back curly and is still a little wavy.

I was very disappointed I didn’t lose any weight and in fact gained more than I would like to admit due to the steroids, which are part of the treatment. Well that was my excuse anyway!

After the three rounds of chemotherapy, I had 15 sessions of radiotherapy, with no side effects at all, other than what felt like mild sunburn on my neck.

I urge everyone to regularly check for lumps everywhere, not just the usual breast or testicle checks which many people do, and to get any suspicious lumps checked as soon as they find them.

The lymphoma team made me feel pretty confident that I was a straightforward case, so I didn’t really feel worried at any point. The diagnosis and treatment were not nice, but were far more manageable than I had thought they would be. Perhaps that’s a reflection of some of the support available now, like the anti-sickness drugs. 

My diagnosis has been life changing and I started to think about what is important and what is not. I was 62 when I had my diagnosis, working as an insurance broker, but after treatment had finished I took the decision to retire. This has been a really good decision for me.

It’s now 15 months after the end of my treatment and I feel perfectly normal (but still overweight unfortunately). I have a blood test every few months and a follow-up phone call with my haematology consultant, but that’s it.