Very Afraid with Symptoms PLEASE HELP ME

Why cancer? That should not even be on your radar, since you have had soooooo many serious infections and an autoimmune condition that explain everything that you are experiencing and more. Cancer would be the LAST thing on my worry list. If you are going to worry, autoimmune conditions and spider bites can be fatal in certain cases - and much much faster than any cancer.

This is just a forum for mutual information and support among cancer patients - there is really no way we can help you beyond reading your post and replying as Po already has.

If you have reason to feel concerned about your health, only your doctor is in a position to examine you and diagnose whatever is going on.

You state that your doctor takes longer than you should wish in getting back to you. Doctors often need time to figure out symptoms, get test results, confer with colleagues, and reach a decision as to the best course of treatment. This is a general problem we have all had to face, and still do face, even with a cancer diagnosis. There is no solution to this - no way to shorten the wait. All the help we can offer here is limited to basic, down-to-earth suggestions, such as:

- if your situation requires urgent care, try the emergency room

- if you are dissatisfied with the way your doctor is handling your case, try another doctor. Please consider, however, that constantly changing doctors is more likely to leave "holes" in your medical record, and lead to further delays - or possible errors.

- if you are unable to manage your anxiety, ask your doctor for a specific prescription. Anti-anxiety medicines can be a great help while facing tests and long waits for results.

Other, non-chemical means of dealing with the stress of waiting include engaging in enjoyable activities (hobbies, outings, social events...) and relaxing techniques such as massage, yoga, meditation, etc.

Hope this helps.

PBL

There simply is a timing error here, as - so far as we understand from what you've said - you have not at this point been diagnosed with lymphoma, and therefore, any symptoms you are experiencing cannot be interpreted as lymphoma symptoms nor be discussed as such.

Of course, if you should ever be diagnosed with lymphoma, then turning to this or any other patient forum for the purpose of understanding your symptoms, treatment options, side effects, etc. would make sense.

In the meantime, we wish you the best possible outcome with your current preoccupation.

PBL

based on my own experience only:

sweats - the lymphoma night sweats are more than just getting hot and sweating. The ones I had were only at night and I was literally drenched. Had to change clothes and pillow case.

Fatigue - Much more than just being tIred! My fatigue developed slowly enough that I was surprised when I realized just how fatigued I was. I walked to the mailbox which is about  3/4 mile from my front door and had a very difficult time walking back up the hill. The following week I was at a trade show in San Diego and had to take a taxi two blocks from the Marriott to the convention center. I said whoa, something is really wrong here! Doctor said "you are working too hard".

Itching- I had very little of this but when I did my entire back itched and I had to scratch it with a dry rough towel. The episodes I had lasted about 1/2 hour.

The others are right that there is no need to jump to unjustified conclusions. Odds are good that you do not have lymphoma. But get a diagnosis if it worries you. When I was suffering these symptoms I was told by a Doctor, just weeks before diagnosis with stage 4 lymphoma, that it was maybe all in my head. A group of very general symptoms is not a diagnosis. Any given symptom could be from any number of conditions. See a cancer expert. Put your mind at ease.

ShadyGuy said:

Some answers

based on my own experience only:

sweats - the lymphoma night sweats are more than just getting hot and sweating. The ones I had were only at night and I was literally drenched. Had to change clothes and pillow case.

Fatigue - Much more than just being tIred! My fatigue developed slowly enough that I was surprised when I realized just how fatigued I was. I walked to the mailbox which is about  3/4 mile from my front door and had a very difficult time walking back up the hill. The following week I was at a trade show in San Diego and had to take a taxi two blocks from the Marriott to the convention center. I said whoa, something is really wrong here! Doctor said "you are working too hard".

Itching- I had very little of this but when I did my entire back itched and I had to scratch it with a dry rough towel. The episodes I had lasted about 1/2 hour.

The others are right that there is no need to jump to unjustified conclusions. Odds are good that you do not have lymphoma. But get a diagnosis if it worries you. When I was suffering these symptoms I was told by a Doctor, just weeks before diagnosis with stage 4 lymphoma, that it was maybe all in my head. A group of very general symptoms is not a diagnosis. Any given symptom could be from any number of conditions. See a cancer expert. Put your mind at ease.

 

 

My night sweats got so bad that my wife had me sleep on a beach blanket, with a body towel on the pillow.  This was with the ceiling fan and a floor fan blowing on me. We did not know that this was indicative of a serious disease.   I did not experience itching at all that I can recall.

Of course, not all Lymphoma patients have any night sweats.  A person could be about to die of Lymphoma and have never had night sweats at all.  Night sweats are part of a package of symptoms called "B Symptoms," which includes night sweats, fatigue, weight loss, and sometimes itching.  In general, the presence of B Symptoms is viewed by oncologists as indication of more advanced or aggressive disease, but this is not always the case.  Note that part of the term night sweats is the word night.  I marvel when people describe sweating during the day at work and say it is "night sweats."  Ordinarily, night sweats kick in only after going to sleep.

Night sweats are more traditionally associated with HL than NHL, but some patients with NHL do report B symptoms.

My fatigue was similiar to Shady's.  At the time I did service calls on ATMs in a company car.   I got to the point that I slept 10 or 12 hours per night, got up and drove to work by around 7;00 AM.  By that time I would have consumed probably 25 ounces of strong coffee.  I might depart on my first call by around 8:30 AM, still drinking coffee.  Within 30 minutes of driving I would have to pull off on the shoulder of the road to snooze, then wake up and drive further until I could buy another 16 oz cup of coffee at a gas station. In other words, within 3 hours of waking up from 12 hours of sleep I was about to pass out from a sensation of exhaustion.  That is how my days went.

Although I had a very indolent disease, my doctor said that to get as much widespread disease as I had required that I must have had Lymphoma a long, long time, way over a year, possibly several.

That is what is meant by "fatigue" bad enough to indicate Lymphoma.  But as Sandy also wrote, fatigue that bad could still be any of a hundred different conditions.  Fatigue is one of the most common conditions complained about to doctors, and it can be someting as simple as depression causing it.   

Just for sharing, I will repeat that when I finally got diagnosed, my blood panels were very nearly perfect, not indicative of any disease.  The only exception was LDH: it was sky high. But, most general practicioners, when they test a patient with a CBC, do not request an LDH.  And despite massive involvement, I have never felt an enlarged lymph node in my life: not before diagnosis or since.   My doctor and NPS all said that somehow mine were just situated deeply within the chest and abdominal cavities.  This left me a bit skeptical about how Lymphoma is diagnosed, since all write-ups regarding my disease state that it usually is caught very early, and is discovered by palpable nodes.  Neither of these were true in my case.

Lymphoma can only be diagnosed by a doctor, and even doctors require a significant amount of testing and data to make this determination. A layperson convincing themselves that they have it is without merit and in fact counterproductive and unhealthy, both physically and emotionally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_symptoms

max

I wish you well and hope you never need this site. But if you do you will find kind, knowledgeable people to talk with. Best of luck!

dana-mihaela said:

Hi All,

I am surprised how many of you had a lot of symptoms. I did not have any symptom of lymphoma no fatigue, no sweating, no lymph nodes enlarged. All my blood work was perfect and LDH slightly elevated a little bit over normal not of any concern. And with no lymphoma symptoms I had a 6 cm tumor (malt lymphoma) in my pelvic area like a helix around the lower part of spinal cord that was pressing on the sciatic nerve. My symptoms were of sciatica from the pressure. How funny is that??

Dana

what test dicovered your tumor?

I had suffered from and been treated for low back pain for years. An MRI for that condition led to my eventual FNHL diagnosis. The radiologist who read my lower back MRI recommended a CT to check for CLL or lymphoma. I went to an oncologist who ordered a PET and BMB and diagnosed FNHL Stage IV. Small tumors were everywhere but concentrated in my chest. I almost felt relieved to be informed I had cancer knowing that my myriad symptoms the prior years were not imaginary as some doctors suspected. Lesson learned: go to an oncologist early on instead of messing around with GPs. The low back pain I had suffered for years went away after the first rituxan infusion. I recently developed sciatica in my left leg and the MRI showed a similar situation again. I plan on pursuing it with a PET scan after deer season and the holidays. The cancer is not the boss, I am.

po18guy said:

Consider...

Please stop researching a death sentence! Research is good only after you have a diagnosis. And then, only if you stick to the diagnosis and don't go looking for something else. There are 68,069 known human illnesses and conditions. Our bodies are capable of producing about 150 different symptoms. By simple math, that means that each symptom potentially indicates 450+ different illnesses. Two symptoms, double the number and so on. Please allow doctor to do the diagnostics. Do not confuse your web-surfing ability with doctor's medical degree.

Google is a mortician, not a doctor.

 

I agree it can be confusing when you dont know what is for sure and you assume. I am concerned I have swollen lymphnoids and that it is progressing it started in my armpit and chest and yesterday something started up my neck. I am so scared I have sweats. I feel like something is putting pressure on other organs of my body. I am trying not to assume anyting, I would however like to know what others had for side effects going through there experience.