The last couple of months have been an absolute blur; as I write this, I will be starting my third cycle of escalated BECOPDac chemotherapy. Now I have some time to reflect on what has happened; let's start at the beginning.
Since around September last year, I had a persistent cough and was itching a lot. I went to the Drs several times about the itching and was treated for all sorts of different things; including scabies, rosea and eczema. I should also mention I was prescribed lots of different creams and medications for these too. I put the persistent cough down to hay fever and getting over different colds. My partner and parents both noticed I was still itching and coughing after Christmas so I thought 'fine, I will go back to the doctors'. At this appointment, he noticed my heart rate was high and took my bloods where he notified me that the white blood cell count was high. I was nervous being sent for an emergency x-ray; I have had family members who had cancer whose blood counts were high.
The chest x-ray confirmed something was there, which they though was a chest infection so was given anti-biotics. I was starting to worry when the anti-biotics weren't really making a difference which was confirmed by the follow up chest x-ray as that showed whatever it was wasn't clearing up. I was sent for an emergency CT scan which confirmed there was a lump near my thymus gland that was pressing on the lung; I was then referred to a lung specialist who confirmed it was likely a type of cancer. Being told those words shook me, I couldn't stop crying; I felt like the floor had crumbled from underneath. I was booked in for a biopsy the following week to confirm what it was. On 2nd April, I got the phone call that started with
'we have your results from the biopsy' My heart sank.
'it's good news and bad news, the bad news it is a cancer; the good news is that it's treatable'
They went on to tell me it was Lymphoma rather than a cancer on the thymus and that I would be referred to the lymphoma team. I mean when I first received the news, there was a weird sense of relief to know exactly what it was and that it was treatable. The days that followed, I couldn't stop crying as it was a lot to get my head around.
As I said at the beginning of the post, I am about to start my third cycle of escalated BECOPDac chemotherapy and I am still getting my head around a lot of things. I will be using this to keep on documenting my progress and the different lessons I have learnt during this process.
