I’ve been meaning to start this series of posts for several months. When I realised it was World Cancer Day today, I decided to get cracking. I am not an expert and this is based on purely my own experience.

Seven months ago, my husband showed me a lump at the base of his neck, midway between neck and shoulder. I say ‘lump’ – it was more like half of a tennis ball growing out of his shoulder – enormous and shocking to see. It was completely painless, a fact that made me completely panic (inwardly).

We went straight to A&E. After a couple of hours, Tony’s temperature had shot sky-high and they decided to keep him in overnight. He had recently had his COVID jab, so they weren’t sure whether it may be related to that. He later tested positive for coronavirus, so was moved to a separate room in the hospital.

Tony was kept in hospital for almost a week while all sorts of tests, biopsies and scans were carried out. He came home and we waited a week for the results. The diagnosis was classical Hodgkin Lymphoma. Nothing quite prepares you for this, no matter how often you see the ads stating that one in two of us will get cancer. You can cross your fingers and hope for the best, wish, pray to a full moon, dance with the devil, absolutely refuse to even contemplate it – cancer is indiscriminate.

My reaction was to turn to Google and read up on everything I possibly could about this. Tony dealt with it by not doing anything at all; sitting with it – trying to adjust.

Hodgkin Lymphoma is a blood cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is part of your immune system and contains infection-fighting white blood cells, known as lymphocytes. In Hodgkin Lymphoma, the B-lymphocytes start to multiply in an abnormal way and become out of control.

The main symptoms of Hodgkin Lymphoma are:

  • a swelling in the neck, armpit or groin. The swelling is usually painless
  • night sweats
  • unexplained weight loss
  • feeling exhausted
  • a high temperature, that can come and go
  • itching of the skin

Well, Tony definitely had the swelling in his neck. In the few weeks before the lump appeared, he had two night sweats, but thought he may have a slight temperature due to a cold. He also had a terrible groin pain one night after drinking alcohol. As this disappeared after taking some paracetamol, he thought no more of it.

My reason for writing this is to share information that may help others who are going through the same thing. I rarely share very personal stuff, especially online. But, I discovered someone on Instagram who was slightly ahead of Tony on the Hodgkin Lymphoma treatment journey and I found his posts were educational and inspirational. It was a comfort to see real people going through this at the same time. It helped so much and I’d like to pass that on. Lots of stuff has happened that goes along with cancer treatment that isn’t talked or written about much, and I’d like to talk about some of that too. See you next week