August 6, 2013
I reported to work the usual, run through the everyday routine (waking up early and enduring the heavy traffic in Manila). There were a number of things to do that day.
I haven’t started my day yet I never felt so tired in my life. I noticed that morning that I could not walk well. I had to hold on or lean through the walls or anything just so to gain balance. I also felt pain in my hands that I could not push well my pen on paper. Squeezing the toothpaste tube became an effort. I knew that I was going through something not good. I tried to manage what I felt. If not for a scheduled important meeting, I would have stayed at home and rested.
That afternoon, the pain I felt became intense. After the meeting, I felt sharp back pain that lingered for seconds. It was then I decided to go to the hospital. I informed my sister right away where I was heading.
At the Emergency Room of the hospital, I was asked how I felt. I described everything unusual, I told the nurses and the ER doctor the ones I wrote above. But it seemed to me they could not sense what illness I have since I looked perfectly normal if not for the fact that I could not walk well. I began to feel a little frustrated, I thought maybe it’s all in my mind or that maybe I overanalyze what I felt. But at the same time, I also feared maybe something is indeed wrong with me. I remember the week before that I had a blood test to check my uric acid level, and handed him the result (normal level of uric acid). Then the ER doctor said I should have a repeat blood test and urinalysis.
After an hour, the results were handed to the doctor. He said I have beyond the normal level of white blood cells (WBC) and asked me if I have fever. I said none. He asked if I could urinate well, I said yes. He paused for a while, thinking, and said to me, “You do not have fever and yet you got very high WBCs. Most people with such levels of WBCs experience fever already.” I tried to recall everything that could help him rule out, and suddenly I remember something I held or ignored for months. Back in March, I was in the shower when I felt a small lump on my left collarbone area. The lump seemed to be a rounded solid mass, as if you’re feeling on a big marble inside. I told the doctor what that was and where I felt it. After that, he advised me for immediate admission to conduct further diagnostic tests to determine the nature of the lump.
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I was admitted in the hospital for a week since that day. I was treated for a pneumonia. I also found out that I had scoliosis. An excision biopsy of the mass was also done, where the surgeon got the rounded masses in my left collarbone area. The biopsy result was:
Atypical lymphoproliferative process, favor malignant lymphoma, probably Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, of nodular sclerosis type.
Confirmatory tests using a panel of immunohistochemical markers validated the same. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a type of cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes, characterized by the orderly spread of disease from one lymph node to another and by the development of systemic symptoms with advanced disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodgkin’s_lymphoma).
I was referred to an oncologist right away. And my life has never been the same.
(A smile, for friends who visited me in the most shaking times in my life. Photo courtesy of RCU.)
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For those in the Philippines, some helpful contact numbers:
For health concerns and check-ups: Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital: 46 P. Sanchez Street, Sta. Mesa, Manila +632 716.8001 to 20 (http://www.ollh-manila.com/)
For affordable immunohistochemical tests: The National Kidney and Transplant Institute Medical Laboratory: East Avenue, Quezon City +632 981.0300 and 982.0400 Note: one test may cost at around the minimum Php 3,000/marker or US $72 (http://www.nkti.gov.ph/laboratory.do)
theunshakablewoman 