What do you think?

SO before I tell you all my symptoms know that I am calling the Doctor to schedule an appt!

 So about a year (August 2007) and a half ago I became sick.  I had a persistant "mono" like symptoms with cough...loss of voice,...fever...VERY swollen glands in neck and trouble breathing.  During this time all I could do was sleep...and I was misserable.  I was in the ER 4 diff. times and EVERYTIME...I was tested for Mono...Infections...everything you can think off...NOTHING!  It was all negative.  Eventually the doctor chalked it up to  "unknown allergies" which i thought was crap!

So This sickness lasted for 6 months and I had a great weight loss during that time but around Feb. 2008 got better.

 I didnt exibit any real symptoms until about 6 months later when my groin had swollen nodes and my legs and groin and stomach became itchy mainly at night.  I began to itch like crazy!  I would wake up itching and in a drenched bed!  I would sweat like crazy at night.  Of course I didnt think anything of it.

 In November 2008 I drank some alchohol for the first time in 6 months and the next day I found a golf ball sized lump in my right armpit..it was very tender.

I went and saw my PCP and she sent me to a breast cancer specialist who said that It didnt concern him too munch and that if it went down I was fine.  It went away after a few weeks so I never went back.

Around December I began to lose weight again.  Going from 155lbs to 140 in less than 2 months....all the while started to be exausted again...Sleeping 6-9 hrs a night and taking 2-4 hr naps in the day (still having itching less, and pain in leg bones with fequent bruising)

I still was just writing it all off...becuase none of the symptoms I have had the last year and a half tied together in my mind. 

Until last week. I drank 2 glasses of alcohol again for the first time in 6 months and woke up with a VERY tender neck.  I havent found a lump but my left neck right above my collar bone is sore.  (along with jaw pain)

My neck is still sore a week later..

I didnt think much of it since I couldnt feel a lump until I randomly saw an article in a magazine about alcohol and lymph nodes relating to Hodgkins Disease!

 I went home and researched Hodgkins Disease and was BLOWN away by all the syptoms.  The reason I keep telling myself that there is no way I have it is that Im a very active and eat healthy and im only 23!!!  AND I have never really had all of the symptoms at the same time. 

 My question is for those of you who are diagnosed....were the symptoms spread out over a matter of a couple years? 

Did you have the symptoms at the same time?

Is it off that my neck is still achy and yet there is NO lump to be found or seen....

 

What test should I request my doctor to perform.  Becuase I have a feeling that my PCP is not agressive or will take these things seriously?

 

Thanks and God Bless!

 

On 3/1/2009 careetsu wrote:

SO before I tell you all my symptoms know that I am calling the Doctor to schedule an appt!

 So about a year (August 2007) and a half ago I became sick.  I had a persistant "mono" like symptoms with cough...loss of voice,...fever...VERY swollen glands in neck and trouble breathing.  During this time all I could do was sleep...and I was misserable.  I was in the ER 4 diff. times and EVERYTIME...I was tested for Mono...Infections...everything you can think off...NOTHING!  It was all negative.  Eventually the doctor chalked it up to  "unknown allergies" which i thought was crap!

So This sickness lasted for 6 months and I had a great weight loss during that time but around Feb. 2008 got better.

 I didnt exibit any real symptoms until about 6 months later when my groin had swollen nodes and my legs and groin and stomach became itchy mainly at night.  I began to itch like crazy!  I would wake up itching and in a drenched bed!  I would sweat like crazy at night.  Of course I didnt think anything of it.

 In November 2008 I drank some alchohol for the first time in 6 months and the next day I found a golf ball sized lump in my right armpit..it was very tender.

I went and saw my PCP and she sent me to a breast cancer specialist who said that It didnt concern him too munch and that if it went down I was fine.  It went away after a few weeks so I never went back.

Around December I began to lose weight again.  Going from 155lbs to 140 in less than 2 months....all the while started to be exausted again...Sleeping 6-9 hrs a night and taking 2-4 hr naps in the day (still having itching less, and pain in leg bones with fequent bruising)

I still was just writing it all off...becuase none of the symptoms I have had the last year and a half tied together in my mind. 

Until last week. I drank 2 glasses of alcohol again for the first time in 6 months and woke up with a VERY tender neck.  I havent found a lump but my left neck right above my collar bone is sore.  (along with jaw pain)

My neck is still sore a week later..

I didnt think much of it since I couldnt feel a lump until I randomly saw an article in a magazine about alcohol and lymph nodes relating to Hodgkins Disease!

 I went home and researched Hodgkins Disease and was BLOWN away by all the syptoms.  The reason I keep telling myself that there is no way I have it is that Im a very active and eat healthy and im only 23!!!  AND I have never really had all of the symptoms at the same time. 

 My question is for those of you who are diagnosed....were the symptoms spread out over a matter of a couple years? 

Did you have the symptoms at the same time?

Is it off that my neck is still achy and yet there is NO lump to be found or seen....

 

What test should I request my doctor to perform.  Becuase I have a feeling that my PCP is not agressive or will take these things seriously?

 

Thanks and God Bless!

You are not too young to have lymphoma, it strikes the old and young.  I would get to your doctor, tell him everything you wrote above, tell him your concerns about lymphoma and ask to start testing you for lymphoma.  A blood draw and MRI would be the places to start.  If your doc hestitates then demand the tests or run as fast as you can to another doctor who takes their patients concerns and fears seriously.  What you described above are classic signs of lymphoma.  My husband was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma of the brain.  He had night sweats, weight loss, but no lumps because his cancer was growing in his brain.  Hopefully your symptoms can be explained by something less serious.  Get to your doctor ASAP.  If it is lymphoma, treatments can start and if it isn't, your peace of mind is priceless.  Good luck.

After a year bout with anemia ,hemoglobin at 11 started having the classic lymphoma symptoms,weight loss,night sweats,severe itching, an ESR blood test was performed results came back at 80+mm/hr far above the 15-20mm/hr range that it should be,a CT scan was issued results were slowly- enhanced abnormal growing lymph nodes in the abdomen,a biopsy revealed Hodgkins

Please call and make an appointment with an Oncologist!  My general Doctor waited too long with me, I had a lump in my groin, and by the time I was diagnosed I was a stage III. 

All of the symtoms you describe can be a sign of Hodgkins.

Good Luck

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that could easily be Hodgekin's. It usually happens to 20-somethings.

Yes to your question about timing, it takes a while. For me it was over 2 years before the idiot doctors figured it out and started agroantly wishing me "good luck". Don't worry about the timing, though. 

The itching and night sweats are symptoms of substage B Hodgkin's, which means it is diffuse and not localized to your lymph nodes.

If you have a level head and can avoid panic, then stop eating all sugar, soft drinks, fruit, alcohol, grain, flour products, and anything else that will raise your blood sugar. Keep watching it, and read and think about the pleomorphic bacteria theory before you take any conventional treatments. If these things don't work, then take the damned chemo.

Don't panic. Your chances of survival are excellent.

 

 

My daughter was diagnosed at 16 years old and it is not uncommon for children as young as 10 years old to get hodgkins.  My daughter was stage IVa and it had went outside the lymph system to the bone on her shoulder blade.  All my daughter exhibited was a cough and after taking her to her GP every two weeks for about a month and a half they finally did a chest x-ray to make sure it was not pneumona and they found a large mass partially collapsing her lung.  We went to the ER and her SED rate was 115.  They immediately admitted her and they began testing for lymphoma and sure enough she had it.  So push you GP to do testing, also my daughters CBC blood work was all normal except she was a little anemic.  I hear of to many people going years without being diagnosed.  Keep pressing.

 Laurie

My daughter was only 16 years old and she did not exhibit any of the normal symptoms of Hodgkins nothing but a cough (granted it was a pretty bad cough) and some tiredness, but nothing alarming as far as the tiredness goes.  We went back and forth to the GP for about a month and a half because her cough would not get better, so he took an x-ray and found a large mediastinal mass (in her upper chest) that was partially collapsing one of her lungs.  He wanted us to see a pulmonogist but he had give us the x-ray to take with us.  We could not get in fast enough for my liking, so i took her to the ER and showed them the x-ray and she never left the hospital.  They did some testing in the ER and had the Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist come in and talk with us.  She spent two weeks in the hospital for test to find out if it was Hodgkin's and for placement of a port-o-cath and beginning of chemo.  I do not know how long she had it but she was staged at IVa (a means without the normal symptoms of night sweats, fevers, itching, loss of weight, etc.). It had already left the lymph system and went to the bone of her shoulder blade as well.  I am not trying to scare you but get them to do a chest x-ray of CT and then biopsy is the only true way of knowing if it is Hodgkins.  Also I want to give you a link to a web site that absolutely wonderful for information and to talk with people who have or have had this disease.  I hope all goes well with you and it is not Hodgkin's but if it is know that it is highly cureable.  My daughter has been 2 years out from chemo and is cancer free.  Good Luck.

http://forums.lymphoma.com/