Hi,
I was diagnosed with SLL in February. I have no symptoms, and am on 'Watch and Wait'. I have no symptoms, have a healthy diet and walk regularly. The problem was first picked up on a CT scan, but I had to have a lymph node removed before actually being diagnosed.
Having looked at several sites on the internet, I'm a little confused as to what foods I have to avoid. Is there a comprehensive list of foods wich are to be avoided, and which ones can be eaten occasionally?
My husband and I eat ham and bacon regularly, and occasionally have pork pie. I've a container full of home made sausage rolls in the freezer., ready for when all the family can get together. Most of the time we eat chicken or fish with the occasional slow cooked beef.
I usually manage to get the recommended 5 a day, serving fruit with Greek yoghurt for dessert most days.
With lockdown easing we're going to be eating out in the not too distant future, and this is where I'm totally at a loss: Do I need to ask the waiting staff to ensure my meal is well cooked, or my salad is well washed? I feel it would probably be considered insulting to any establishment serving food.
Hi Natterbox and welcome to this corner of the community.
I am Mike Thehighlander and I help out around our blood cancer groups. I don’t have SLL but was diagnosed in 1999 with a rare skin Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (hit my name for my story.
Being on Watch and Wait (I prefer Active Monitoring) is a mind set, I was on W&W for 14 years before we had to use big gun treatments.
As for diet, apart from when you are on treatments like chemo that can reduce the effectiveness of your immune system then a normal healthy balanced diet is what I was told and indeed had for all these years.
My treatment has left me with a reduced immune system so we do watch the places we go to ensure food is cooked properly but this does not stop us eating out in places we trust.
You follow normal food safety rules like any other person with regards to cooking food well, serving hot, watching for cross contamination and leaving foods like sausage rolls to get up to room temperature as this is when bacteria kicks in and even the best immune system will find it hard to control this.
Do check out Lymphoma Action, a small UK Lymphoma Specific Charity who have lots of information, videos and run regular regional online Lymphoma Zoom support groups and indeed a great Lymphoma Buddy Service.
Always around to chat.
I will add that after my second Stem Cell Transplant I was put on a high protein diet as I needed to get some weight back on as I had lost about 27kgs during mid 2013 to mid 2016...... but no one told me to come off the diet 
I had my yearly SCT Late Effects clinic (phone call) just at the start of lockdown last year and my bloods showed I was pre-diabetic and my weight was up so we cut out a lot of protein including watching what processed foods we have, sweet treats...... it’s a balance but we still will eat out when we can.
