I Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma In 1995 - Here's What Happened part 1

It seems a lifetime away now and somehow like it all happened to someone else really but the facts are there. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in October 1995 and the following Spring was told by a consultant that I was in remission adding, "whatever you're doing carry on doing it". That last comment has such resonance with me because it says to me that the medical staff with whom I came into contact, the medical episodes at that time, nothing and nobody was convinced that the 2 different chemotherapy courses I underwent had anything to do with my remission. Of course I was elated together with my wife and family - I'm sure I'll never quite get a real handle on the effect it had on them (probably more so than that which I experienced).

I shouldn't be here now - I know this for a fact. Before the diagnosis I had been having flu-like symptoms for several months and told myself "doctors don't want to be bothered with virus infections". Eventually I went to a doctor at my local practice who referred me to a specialist but after a month of waiting for an appointment I saw a 2nd doctor from the practice who had me in hospital that same day. It was many years later that my wife told me yet another doctor at the practice, whilst I was being treated, told her, "I admire your positivity but you ought to prepare yourself for losing your husband". And so she aught for during a 2 week stay in hospital after x-rays, bone marrow, liver, lymph node biopsies it transpired that the cancer had spread through my lungs and was described as 'stage 4' - well progressed.

In the ensuing days and weeks I was put on a regime of chemo therapy with the comforting observation by a cancer professional that if I were to get a cancer this was the one to have due to its better prospects.

As visits to the hospital came and went I was feeling pretty sick but I was really struck by 2 things - 1) overwhelming compassion for the nursing staff who were so horrendously overworked and 2) overwhelming compassion and empathy for fellow patients - my eyes would well up seeing the suffering of others that it made what was happening to me seem small fry.

I did, at the outset, think to myself that if my number was up so be it but my wife and I would explore what we could do for ourselves. In my next post I'll go into detail of how this took shape and I'll leave the reader to decide what to make of it.