Living with Follicular NHL (Indolent)

I am 46yrs of age and live in Dunedin, New Zealand. I have four adult children and work in a large call centre. I was diagnosed with Follicular NHL (Indolent) in August 2003 after more than 12mths and many visits to the Doctors with what seemed like a bout of the flu that would never go away, I also had other symptoms like bone pain and itchy skin (mainly on the legs) especially at night, I lost around 25kg as well. It was only after I found a lump growing in my cheek area of my face and the children at the school that I was working in started asking questions and commenting that I went back to the Doctor and requested that the lump be removed. After the initial biopsies I had surgery in September to remove some lymph nodes from my neck and had a bone marrow aspiration at the same time as well. I was diagnosed with Indolent Follicular NHL Stage IVB. I started on oral chemo and that continued until January 2004. That kept me in remission for 12mths. Then in late December I started losing weight again but had no other symptoms until early January 2005, so we did the wait and watch scenario. At that time I had decided that I needed a change in jobs and applied for a job in a call centre. At the initial interview I had to disclose my condition and found that this made no difference and was offered a job starting in April 2005, by July my symptoms were getting worse so it was decided that I would need intravenous chemotheray and had 5 rounds, which put me in remission for about 9 months when in late 2006 it was discovered that the cancer had returned and in early January 2007 I start radiation therapy to my head (that was the worst time for me), I suffer from claustrophobia and with radiation therapy to the head I had to have a special mask made which had to be worn and attached to the table during treatment, I couldn't cope with this and had to be sedated for each treatment, and then had 6 rounds of chemo. Throughout this time I have managed to continue working and even completed a half marathon last year in Christchurch (walking). I had my last round of chemo in June 2007 and have since remained in remission and hope that it remains like this for sometime to come. I have thrown myself into my job and also have spent the last 11 months getting my family tree together. It has been a big job as my family is scattered throughout New Zealand. I travelled to the North Island in March this year with one of my sisters and we found that our mother had passed away and her sister (our Aunty) was alive and well living in Palmerston North. I am still working on the family tree, keeping busy at work and also watching my children, well young adults now grow up. I try to remain positive about the future but do have days that I wonder when the cancer will return and what then....