10:56 AM - 
cancer,ct scan,lymphoma,tuberchulosis,x-ray
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cancer,ct scan,lymphoma,tuberchulosis,x-ray
No comments
How I Found Out
The reason I started this blog is so that I can share my cancer experience to everyone out there. I've learnt a lot since my chemotherapy started, and still learning lot's of things along the way. For some issues, I couldn't find the solution online and had to learn the hard way; and for some issues, solution was easily obtainable by a quick search. I would love to share whatever information I have, so that anyone having the same issue could benefit from whatever that I've learnt. I should mention here that I'm a vegetarian. I don't take eggs and fish either.
Let me first tell you how I found out about my lymphoma. I'll try to make this as brief as possible (probably skip on various unnecessary details), though, it was SOME journey!
I was down with fever first. After curing from fever (about a week after), my cough didn't stop. In fact, I was coughing for almost three weeks. It should be noted here that my body temperature during this time was normal. I'm the kind of guy who don't like going to the hospital, unless I know for a fact something is really wrong. Well, three weeks of cough definitely tells you that something is really wrong! In fact, I had a thin lining of blood in my sputum once. Yup, definitely it's time to see the doctor.
I decided to finally pay a visit to the hospital. After asking for various details (cough for the past 3 weeks, night sweats, blood in sputum, chest pains, fever), the doctor suspected that I might have tuberchulosis (TB). So, I was sent for a chest X-Ray. After examining the X-Ray, they found my lungs to be a little clowdy, and there were white linings along the bronchi, so it might be TB after all. The doctor then took a sputum sample from me and asked me to collect my sputum for the next two days. Lab results for TB was negative. I gave a BIG sigh and thought, "Thank God!". I was given cough syrup after that.
My cough didn't stop though. This went on for another week. I knew I had to go to the doctor again. This time, the doctor took a closer look at my X-Ray (the same one I did the last time), and found a round shape of 'something' just beside my trachea. Not really sure what it was, the doctor then referred me to a heart specialist to get my heart checked, suspecting I might have some problems with my heart. "So, it's heart related now?!!!", I thought. After going for a CT scan, the specialist then confirmed it was lymphoma. I had an abnormal growth on my lymph node at my chest.
In a nutshell, the coughing was a sign that I already had lymphoma. The doctors think that my persistent cough was because of the lump touching my breathing track. It took me about two months from the point I started coughing, to my CT scan to finally conclude that I have lymphoma.
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