John is a cancer warrior. On an unknown date in March of 2019, I woke up in the middle of the night wearing a sweat-drenched shirt and in agony with severe hip, hamstring, and lower back pain which lasted about 90 minutes.
“I thought I had overdone it at work or had been working out too hard the previous day. Maybe I was getting older and developing sciatica.”
This took place on and off for several months. During that time, I noticed some general malaise and low-grade fevers throughout the day. I didn’t think that anything was seriously wrong with me, especially since I recently had an annual physical.
After these symptoms persisted for a few months, I booked another visit with my doctor. She sent me for an x-ray, an MRI, some blood work, and gave me a referral for a rheumatologist.
The rheumatologist suggested that I might have polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) but ordered a CT scan as well as further blood tests before making his diagnosis.
A short while after the CT scan was performed, I was asked to book an endobronchial ultrasound since there was swelling in my chest.
On November 27, 2019, I drove to Hamilton to get my test results, which I didn’t think would show signs of anything serious, and instead, I received a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.