Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and anaemia

Don’t know why those smiley faces appeared !!

Hi  and welcome to this corner of the Community although always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our Lymphoma groups.

I was diagnosed way back in 1999 with a rare incurable but treatable type of skin Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Stage 4a and although my blood cancer ‘type’ is different I have experienced most types of treatments used but not necessarily the exact same drug mix.

The smiley face sometimes happen 

The experiences your dad is having is not that unusual, it is his first treatment and his body is still getting over the shock of the treatment but let’s look for things to settle down as time goes on.

Chemo is designed to kill the cancer cells but will also kill off healthy cells as well so low blood counts and being anaemic is unfortunately part of the journey. 

Infection During chemotherapy is also high and the time when his immune system is most vulnerable is normally days 7-14. This is when there is an increased risk of infection.

For some people the recovery can take longer but his team will be able to advise  as to how he is doing.

His leg pains could be down to Fatigue as this may well build up over time so take each day as it comes but at the same time keep some activity going as this does actually help overcome some of the fatigue.

During my 6 cycles of R-EPOCH I was on my chemo for 120 hrs 24/7 at a time and the main issue I had was fatigue but my nurse team told me to keep active so I walked the ward corridors with my chemo stand after every meal and actually did a few miles a day.

Always around to help out

The chemo affects the bone marrow where the blood cells are made. I'd think it's likely to happen again and they'd keep a look out for it in future months. Mine took a hit with platelets, the blood cells that stop bleeding, getting lower and lower, so much so that my last chemo was shortened. I got into full remission and my blood has somewhat recovered.

Thank you so much for your reply. You’re information has been so helpful. We are given quite a bit of info about side effects etc but there is nothing clearer than reading about a real persons experiences. You are truly an inspiration and offer much hope. Thank you 

Thank you for sharing your experience. Glad you are having success with this. Dad is now going for a bowel check today as he has had a polyp in his bowel which has proven to be very tricky to remove, it has been biopsied and results were benign so hospital didn’t feel it was of importance when the Lymphoma was diagnosed. Unfortunately the Consultant he is dealing with at the moment in Haematology wasn’t aware of the polyp that was still pending treatment. For the past 7 days he has been having constipation and when he does eventually go his stool is black. This implies blood is coming from somewhere but they have checked everything in the stomach area and cannot pinpoint where it’s coming from. Possibly the polyp ?? We will wait and see.

Good morning  good to see our posts are helpful. Like any medication there are degrees of side effects occurrence, if we line up 10 people with the same condition on the same treatment we will get 10 different journeys. 

Talking with other folks supporting people in treatment brings a different understanding, I often ask my wife Fiona for her thoughts as she has walked this journey for 22 years as well.

Do also 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 including a specific Family and Carers Lymphoma Support Group.