It's just a swollen gland

This all started when I felt unwell during the first weekend of September. I was tired and achy and flu-like but without the stuffy head, sore throat and phlegm. I felt along my neck because that seems to be what doctors and mothers do when one is ill and since I am a mother now I thought I'd give it a go. Lucky I did. I felt a firm lump at the base of one side of my neck and had a look at it in the mirror and it was visible, which I didn't think it should be.

So I made an appointment to see the doctor. I couldn't see the doctor I usually go to, but I got in to see my 'back-up doctor'. He thought it was probably a virus. He sent me for blood tests. He rang me later that day to say my iron was low and that I should start taking iron tablets. Ok. Easy.

The lump seemed to go up and down a bit but maybe that's because I just kept poking it. On the 16th of September (Wednesday) I did the corporate cup after work, a 4.5 km run around the picturesque Torrens Lake. I struggled along and it was a bit of an effort to finish. Dave did the run with me and when we'd finished we went back to his parent's place for tea. During tea, about an hour after running, I had a little turn. My lips went blue, I was cold, I had the shakes. It was a bit strange.

After that little episode, Dave wasn't going to let me do the City to Bay the following Saturday and he made me go to the doctor again. I said let's not be hasty because I really wanted to do the run. I got in to see my usual doctor and she said there didn't seem to be any definite reason for my turn - just a mixture of things like low iron, low blood sugar etc. She said she wouldn't rule out doing the City to Bay but just to be aware that I could have a similar turn. She told me to make another appointment for the following week in case I needed it and to cancel it if I felt okay.

That was enough for me. I told Dave I'd see how I felt on the Saturday before the run and I'd decide then. We decided to do it. I was going to run with my sister (and Dave) which I was pretty pumped about. She was seven weeks pregnant and I had lymphoma and we got to the end running pretty much the whole way (it's 12 k's). Dave made it to the end too.

I ended up going back to see the doctor for the appointment I'd already made, not because I was still feeling ill but because I needed a prescription I usually have and had run out of. So I went, told her the run was fine and that I was feeling okay but that the lump was still there a bit. No worries.

Things kept going in their normal fashion. We went camping on the last weekend in September when it was freezing and rainy and windy. I cooked for a conference at Victor Harbor over the October long weekend. I went to work, took Maesie to dance practise, went to playgroup - the usual stuff.

But things still were not quite right. I still felt quite tired and lethargic, but what parent doesn't? I had sore shoulders, but I always hunch over. I still had a lump at the base of my neck, but it wasn't as big as before. Then some little things happened and I added them to my list. I had leg cramps one morning and I'd never had them before. I was occasionally aware of my heart/lungs. It's a bit hard to explain. I know they're in there but usually I don't feel them do their job but I had a few niggles, not really pains, that just weren't quite right.

Back to the doctor with my list. That was 5.5 weeks after I first felt unwell. She didn't really like the fact that my lump was still there and I had a list of strange things going on. She sent me for a chest x-ray, an ultrasound of my neck and a fine needle aspirate of the lump. The appointment for all that was 9 days after I saw the doctor, a Thursday. I headed down to the hospital and had the ultrasound first. During that I found out there was more than just one lump in my neck. The fine needle biopsy was okay. It looked like a snake had bitten my neck.

On Friday my doctor rang me to make sure I had an appointment soon - I had one for the following Tuesday. I asked her what it could be and that was the first time the 'L' word was mentioned. I asked what else - "Some kind of virus". On Monday evening my doctor rang again to tell me that there were abnormal cells in the biopsy and that she had organised some things to 'fast-track' the process. She had made an appointment for me to see a surgeon on the Tuesday afternoon and then if he agreed it was necessary, to have surgery to remove the lump in my neck on Wednesday. She also told me she would have to refer me on to a specialist. Things were getting interesting.

Anyway, to wrap it up, I had the lump removed, the results came back to say Hodgkin's Lymphoma and then I moved into the land of a million tests and started to become familiar with the RAH. My life is no longer what it used to be.