About me

I will start with one of my (last ten years) experiences that you may find interesting. About 6 years ago, I found a small lump on my neck, so I went to the doctor who suggested I have further tests - and, yes I was then diagosed with CANCER. I had a very rare lymphoma that is usually in older men (and I was a younger woman!!)

That was the beginning of my journey. I was lucky enough to have access to the best doctors in the world - they put me through 6 months of chemotherapy starting each treatment with a day of mapthera (which was a fairly new drug at the time). I lived one week in hospital and then 2 weeks out. I went to the hairdressers very quickly who styled a wig for me with my actual hair cut. Very soon I had to be wearing that wig every day. Yes, my eyebrows and eyelashes fell out as well. I learnt how to draw on eyebrows and how to put on false eyelashes (or wear sunglasses). I tried to continue to play tennis for a while - remembering once when my wig fell off frightening the opposing team.

This treatment continued for about 3 months until they then collected my stem cells. They were put into storage for future implantation.

After 6 months I had a week of full intensive chemotherapy. They then implanted my stem cells (through my blood) and with extremely georgeous nursing and doctoring grew my body back. I was fed intraveneously for about 10 days (in isolation) as I had no immune system and was very sick for quite a while.

It took about a month to be able to get dressed. Another month to be able to walk to the front of the house. I will add later the next few months experiences (which included ambulance trips with septic blood, blood clots, pnumonia, dermatamyasitis and many more - I will fill you in later as I don't want this to go on too long.)

5 years later, I am now playing tennis, golf, back to work and have memories of the best doctoring and nursing staff anyone could ever dream of.

I will follow with more of my stories later, but in the mean time please tell me one of yours.