Common Hodgkin Lymphoma Symptoms Sometimes Missed
- Swelling in lymph nodes can cause a lump near the collar bone, neck, or under the arm
- Fatigue, fever, night sweats, and weight loss can be present for several months
- Itchy skin may send patients to a dermatologist seeking answers
More Symptoms Emerge
By May 2019, Godfrey felt unusually fatigued during a dance class. When she developed a fever and sore muscles, she asked to sit out the class. ‘When I got home, I had a really bad pain in my chest to the point where I wasn’t breathing properly because it would hurt too much,’ she said. That night, her condition worsened.
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“Almost immediately,” Godfrey said, doctors recognized that something was “very wrong'” with the otherwise-healthy teen.
A chest x-ray revealed an 11-centimeter tumor on the lymph nodes near Godfrey’s heart. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. The blood cancer had spread to her spleen and neck.
Itching Was Not Her Only Symptom
She hadn’t noticed the small swollen lump above her collar bone, another sign of Hodgkin lymphoma — and neither had the doctors who’d examined her over the past year. A biopsy of the lump confirmed her diagnosis.
Other symptoms of lymphoma include fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, and alcohol intolerance. The only other sign Godfrey had noticed was fever.
Godfrey, who had hopes of going to college and medical school, was determined to finish her final exams before beginning chemotherapy. “I was stubborn,” she said, adding that she didn’t want to be “stressing out even more or having any side effects from the treatment.”
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Doctors put her on medication and steroids to slow the growth of the tumor while she finished her exams.
Cancer Responded Well
Once she began chemotherapy, Godfrey was thankful the cancer responded to treatment and her tumor shrunk by almost half after her first few sessions. Her only side-effect was “chemo brain,” which made concentrating on schoolwork difficult, she said, but “I wasn’t bed-ridden and was never nauseous.”
A thick catheter needle — known as a PICC line — was inserted into her arm and remained there for three months. “My veins were very small and squiggly, so sometimes it took the nurses seven goes to insert it in right – so I got the PICC which made it a lot easier even though I initially didn’t want it,” she said.
After four months, she’d started losing her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes; and began wearing a wig to feel more like herself.
“A Huge Chunk Out of My Life”
Godfrey celebrated with friends at her final chemotherapy session saying, overall, cancer had made her “grateful” for her life. “‘It made me realize the cliché of “make the most of your life”, but at the same time I wish it didn’t happen because it took a huge chunk out of my life that I can’t get back,’ she said.
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On January 14, 2020, Remi was given the ‘all clear’ from doctors and is now in remission.
About Hodgkin Lymphoma
Lymphomas are cancers that begin in a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes. The two main categories of lymphomas are Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin. which is far more common.
Hodgkin lymphomas typically begin in a part of the lymph system called B cells, which make proteins called antibodies that help protect the body from germs, according to the American Cancer Society.
The disease is most commonly diagnosed in people between 20 and 40 years old and those over 55, according to the Mayo Clinic. Advances in diagnosis and treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma have helped give people with this disease the chance for a full recovery. The prognosis continues to improve for people with Hodgkin lymphoma.
Signs and Symptoms of Hodgkin lymphoma
A Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis can emerge from one or more of the following symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic
- Severe itching
- Painless swelling of lymph nodes in neck, armpits, or groin
- Night sweats
- Fever
- Unexplained weight loss
- Persistent fatigue
- Increased sensitivity to the effects of alcohol or pain in your lymph nodes after drinking alcohol
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