The story of Mary and the Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
I arrived at the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin large B cell lymphoma 3 months after the onset of symptoms, I was 35 years old. I found myself with the right side of my neck very very swollen, I felt like a boxer! Tiredness and pain kept me company … Blood tests, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, carotid Doppler ultrasound, two fine needle aspirations, no certain results … it was not immediately clear what it was. Then the hospitalization in Infectious Diseases, where I spent the nights with the nurses who helped me with the ice to relieve the pain in the neck that had now become unbearable. With the transfer to Otolaryngology, the doctors decided to perform a biopsy, the diagnosis finally arrived: “It is lymphoma, but it is treatable”.
I clung to those two simple words: “It is treatable“.
This is how I met Dr. Michele Cimminiello and the Oncohematology team of the San Carlo Hospital who welcomed me, pampered and supported me in every aspect of the disease, especially that of considering myself a person and not just a patient. They never made me feel alone, they gave me confidence, also teaching me to do the puncture on my stomach the day after the chemotherapy, which was integral to it, thus avoiding me having to go back to the hospital just for that. I followed all the indications they gave me, I trusted and trusted them.
I equipped myself with a notebook in which to collect all the questions that came to my mind … because I learned that asking even trivial questions to experts is the number one rule to maintain serenity and smile, the rest was up to the treatments and, those were entrusted to skilled hands.
My treatment path was short and intense, my malignant and aggressive lymphoma was fortunately localized in the neck and required “only” 4 cycles of chemotherapy every 15 days and 18 radiotherapy sessions.
Did I lose my hair? Yes, exactly when the doctor told me it was going to happen, it wasn’t a good time, but after I shaved I discovered the exact shape of my head and the smile reappeared. Then the hair grew back and, from being straight, it became curly!
Almost five years have passed since this experience that I found myself facing and today, with the pandemic underway and the restrictions that affect everyone, I can say that my family and I have already experienced the lockdown when, due to the my immunosuppressed state, I was advised to avoid crowded places, not to be in contact with people who had flu syndromes and to be concerned.
I learned that the smile is the weapon that the patient must always unleash, because the pains, the bureaucratic disputes are there and there will be anyway, but the smile is truly disarming!
It helps to face the prescriptions, the limitations and to bring out the warrior that is in every sick person.
Maria