My wife and I had a camping trip in the back garden this Summer, it was the height of lockdown chic holidays and colder than anticipated. The following day she complained of a painful swelling in her neck, putting it down to us slumming it on blow up beds in our middle aged years.
She decided to paracetamol through it and wait, but a few weeks later no change, if anything it was a little worse, so she visited the GP surgery and was passed to a Nurse practitioner who told her it was most likely muscular and that she should look up neck exercises on Pinterest.
Almost a month later, she decided a trip to the Doctor for another opinion would be prudent, he quickly recognised the lump was a swollen Lymph node and referred her to ENT at our local hospital.
ENT took Bloods with no visible issues, an Ultrasound, MRI, neonatal biopsy (tiny biopsy) all of which just confirmed a swollen reactive lymph node and that there were a couple more reactive, slightly deeper.
Another larger Biopsy was inconclusive and then the whole Lymph node was removed under general anesthesia to get a full picture. (Lymphendectomy)
The result came back as Hodgkin lymphoma, with a tentative tagline of "most likely stage1 early" as she had absolutely No symptoms.
A referral to Heamatology and a Pet Scan revealed Stage 4 Advanced Hodgkins Lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease, as it was not 'as suspected' just in her neck, but lesions visible in her rib cage and spine. This was revealed on the last day of 2020. Certainly our toughest year of 18 spent together blissfully unencumbered by disease till this point.
She had her first round of ABVD this week, thankfully other than a little nausea and fatigue she has been okay, but I appreciate it is just the beginning of a long and unpredictable walk.
I am so happy she was quick to get checked, and wanted to write this up so anyone wondering if they should get a lump or swelling checked out doesn't hesitate and keeps banging their surgery door till they get answers.
Anyway, back to my cleaning rota.
Big love.
Martin.
Thank you Mr Martin for posting this.
So sorry your wife has received the diagnosis but I hope she makes a good recovery now that she is in treatment. It is so important to never ignore sudden changes in your body like this.
Swollen neck lymph nodes are often the first sign of oropharyngeal cancer too.
There is a dedicated HODGKIN LYMPHOMA group if you feel you both need some more expert support.
Once again, I wish you both well.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
