Susans' Hodgkin Lymphoma story - I've beaten cancer three times!

Most people expect to be sick at least once in their life, but not three times. Little did I know when I got married in August 1985 what lay ahead of me. I got married when I was 22, some may say too young, but I had been going out with my husband since I was 15. Within a couple of months of getting married, I began to feel unwell. I ignored it for a couple of months, but eventually got fed up with my husband's nagging and decided to go to my doctor. After various tests I was diagnosed with having Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hodgkin's affects the lymphatic glands and strikes people in their 20s and 30s and sometimes later on in life. Typical symptoms include night sweats, weight loss, itching skin and unexplained lumps. The disease has an 80 per cent cure rate, but, if not detected early enough, can be fatal.

Of course when I heard the words Hodgkin's and chemotherapy, I didn't have a clue what it was because I had never heard of either before and I had never come across anyone getting chemo. The word cancer was never mentioned when I was diagnosed. I was told I may lose my hair and either put on weight or lose weight. I was told that I would need six months of chemo and then a scan to see if I was clear. I only discovered I had cancer when I was half way through the treatment. My friends and family knew, but were afraid to tell me. When I found out, I cried for a week, but I never thought I was going to die. The treatment wasn't too bad, I attended the hospital as an out-patient, was on 22 tablets a day and needed to attend the hospital once a week for two weeks and then had a two week break I didn't loose my lovely long blond hair, so you could say it was easy. I continued to work all the way through my treatment, only taking off the day I needed to attend the hospital. After the six months I was given the all clear. So I carried on with my life.

At this stage I joined a support group LSI (Lymphoma Support Ireland), which works in association with the Irish Cancer Society. I joined their committee and also trained to be a counselor. I felt I wanted to help other patients and give them support. When you are going through your treatment you feel very isolated and nobody knows what you are going through, so it's a great comfort to be able to talk to another person who has either gone through treatment or is going through treatment. I can honestly say that without the support of HUG I would not have got through my treatment so well.

Most reoccurrences of Hodgkin's happen within two to three years of treatment. But no, I had to be different, so I was five years in the clear and then had a relapse. I knew the Hodgkin's was back, because I had all the same symptoms as the previous time. With most cases of Hodgkin's, you nearly always develop some form of symptom to let you know there is something wrong, but not in all cases. So in a way it is good because when detected on time, the majority of people are cured. So back I went to the hospital and was told I would need more intensive treatment which would take twelve months. This time I was also an out-patient, going for treatment once a week for two weeks and then having two weeks rest.

This time I did lose my hair, but I got a wig the exact same as my own hair and coloring so you would not know at a glance that I was wearing a wig. The wigs they have nowadays are fabulous: people who have hair even wear wigs for convenience and style. I have to say my husband was fabulous throughout the whole treatment, and he really kept me going. Also my family gave me great support.

It's important to think positive while you're undergoing treatment. Easier said than done when you're going around bald as a coot and feeling sick all the time. But there's no point in lying about it - the treatment is absolutely awful! Most people sympathize with you, and you will find that in most families nowadays they will have encountered some one who has had to undergo treatment.. Don't be afraid to cry as it's a great way to relieve stress.

After twelve months of intensive chemo, once again I was given the all clear and thought to myself, 'Great at least now I can get on with my life.' And that was that for the next five years. Great!

But then, five years later, I went back for a routine check up, feeling fine and with no symptoms, and I was told that something had shown up in my scan and they needed to investigate. I just could not believe this! I was feeling so well. After a consultation with the specialist I was told they would give me five months of intensive chemo, and, believe me, they were not joking. After the first dose, all my hair started to fall out.

I went home in a state of total misery. As it started coming out in chunks, my husband sat me down gently and shaved my head. I cried and cried when I saw my baldness, and he kept kissing it as he told me that I looked beautiful. If I had not needed this support so badly, I might have thought that I had found his fetish for bald women.

I have to admit that the treatment this time was so intense that I was sick for several months, losing almost 60 pounds in weight, because I just couldn't stop throwing up. Some patients are lucky because they have some new anti-sickness drugs to prevent sickness, but, of course, they did not make the slightest difference to me. After my five months of high dosage chemo I had a peripheral stem cell transplant. During transplantation, stem cells are removed from the body via a machine, collected from the patient prior to chemo and returned after they have been purified. They literally remove some of your blood, clean it and transfer it back into you. This is a reasonably new form of treatment and I was lucky enough to be able to get it. I was aware of this treatment because in our support group we had lectures from various doctors informing us about the new developments in treatment, so it wasn't so scary. After I had the transplant done I was in isolation for a couple of weeks. I'm normally a happy contented person, but I spent eight weeks in hospital without being allowed home and I spent the last week crying to every nurse, doctor and visitor, because I just wanted to go home to my husband.

For obvious reasons, after so much treatment I am unable to have children. It bothers me now and again, but in general it doesn't. I have a fantastic husband who adores me and I adore him and we have a very good life together. I love travelling abroad to the sun so I just keep planning my hectic social life and holidays. I would say that being sick has changed my life. I only work part-time now because at the moment I wouldn't be able to work a full day, I get tired easily and the circulation in my hands and feet is not good some days. But besides that I'm flying. Obviously God has a reason for allowing me to pull through my illness three times. So I just enjoy every minute of the day, because, after all, I could have died.

I'm only 36 and I hope to live the same amount of time again.

Susan