Hi all,
First of all sending lots of love to you all :love:. I wanted to share my case with you.
On the 11th of December, I found a lump in my left groin when showering. At first, I thought it was nothing worrying. It wasn't painful but it was bothering me a bit as the inflammation was affecting the structures around it.
I waited for 2 weeks and it wasn't bothering me anymore but it was still there. Then it got bigger and I went to see my GP. I was referred to the sexual health clinic where the doctors did tests and repeated them for 2 weeks. Everything was negative and then I was referred to my GP. When my second GP saw me (I have 2) she got very worried and referred me urgently to Oncology. I had a scan that showed several enlarged lymph nodes (5-6) with lost hilum, suggestive of malignancy/lymphoma or a very rare infection also in the differential diagnosis.
The Oncologist did a lot of blood tests including viruses and the only remarkable thing was that I had the IgA (7.29 g/L with normal range being 0.8-4) and IgG (20.3 g/L with normal range being 5.5-16.5) elevated, which can be suggestive of chronic infections, lymphoma, inflammatory processes, autoimmune illnesses.
I had my biopsy yesterday and I'm worried thinking it can be lymphoma. The doctor says that the tissue he took looked red and normally melanoma is black. He says that with cancer they usually find necrosis too (dark colour again) but he insisted at this point his comment was only speculation. There was no pus or anything similar, suggesting maybe it's not tuberculosis?
I haven't had any other symptoms but when I tried to take echinacea or any other thing that boost my immune system (I also tried mushrooms capsules) I had a fever and sweats at night.
My questions here:
Any advice from anyone who has been through a similar journey and has more information? Could it be anything different to lymphoma?
If the biopsy says it's lymphoma, what's the next step? A whole-body scan to look for more lumps?
How long does it take from finding out it's cancer to treatment?
I'm really worried about treatment side-effects affecting the heart. Does anyone have any advice on this?
Thank you,
Sending you all love, courage and hope.:love::love::love::love::love:
Fran.
