Hi, my mum has had a persistent cough for several months & since Christmas has lost 2 stone in weight. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer on 20th Feb, we were told it had spread to other lung too & was inoperable. They did a bronchoscopy and we were called in to say it wasn’t lung cancer but cancer in both lungs from NHL. She had a PET scan which has shown it has spread to the neck and there is a question mark over whether it has spread to the bone marrow & colon. The consultant said she would rather get my Mum started on chemo than put her through more invasive tests when the treatment plan would be the same. They are admitting her for 3 days & we are waiting on a phone call for her to go in today or tomorrow. It’s all very overwhelming and a complete rollercoaster of emotions from initial diagnosis to this point. I’m caring for my Mum & she looks to me for reassurance. At times it can feel a scary, lonely place to be.
Hi Beehoney and warm welcome to the Macmillan Online Community although sorry that you had to find us and especially sorry to hear about your mum's DLBCL Lymphoma diagnosis.
I am Mike and I help out around our Lymphoma groups. I was diagnosed way back in 1999 at 43 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Low Grade NHL eventually reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so although my Lymphoma ‘type’ may be different I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well.
How your mum has been diagnosed is actually not that unusual as NHL can be very difficult to identify and is often mistaken for other cancers but as bad as this all sounds this is still very treatable.... High-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a fast growing type of NHL but the positive thing is this means that it will respond well to treatment...... unlike my Low Grade NHL that is a lifetime incurable condition..... but as I said I was stage 4 in late 2013 and I am still here, turned 67 last November and doing great.
Could I suggest that you join our dedicated Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma as this is a safe place to talk to others who may have a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support from family members who are navigating the same journey.
To join a group first click on the “Bold Link” I have created above then once the group page opens click on “Click to Join” when the black banner appears or “Join” under “Group Tools” (this all depends on the device you are using
You can then put up your own post when you’re ready by clicking “+new” or “+” in the top right next to the group title. You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
I will keep an eye open for you but if you are not sure what type you have pleased do get back to me on this post and I will help you out further.
