Why am I writing this blog? simply because I find it so hard to speak the words out loud as they stick in my throat and I relive it again and again. Even as I write this the salty tears are stinging as the roll down my cheeks.
Hodgkin's Lymphoma
around Rhiannon's sixteenth birthday she had been unwell. she had a cough and was treated with numerous anti biotics and steroids over a period of two months. In hindsight there were other symptoms that in isolation were dismissed. She had terrible itchy skin, she suffered from eczema so we put it down to that. Not sleeping, night sweats, yet very lethargic and no energy. loss of weight , her periods stopped ....all put down to hormones and stress relating to up and coming GCSE exams. I took her to the doctors over 20 times in a month and in the end I lost my temper and insisted on help. I made the doctor listen to me and demanded that he do something to find out what was the matter. On that day I said to the doctor to 1. look back at her medical records which he did and it was evident that Rhiannon was never ill until recently. 2. i asked him to count her pulse, he looked at me as if I had ten heads. He indulged me and when I asked him what he got it was 152. without another word he picked up the phone to contact the hospital.
and then the nightmare began.......
it took up to three weeks of waiting after numerous scans, x-rays, blood tests and two biopsys. The hardest 3 weeks of our lives, not sure what exactly she had although the doctors told us it was "most likely" to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma (Lymphoma means a cancer of the lymphatic system. There are two main types of lymphoma). However, they wouldn't commit to a formal diagnosis until all the results were done. It was a bizarre feeling that when on the 10th March 2014, the Oncology Consultant came to give us that formal diagnosis, both myself and Rhiannon were euphoric! It was such a relief to know that now they could start a treatment plan......
