Mine were exacerbated by a complete breakdown in my family support network, so I was alone.Įxcept, I wasn’t. Physical effects are predictable, emotional effects are not. How did your emotions play out as you went through chemo and the build-up to transplant?Ĭhemo wears you down, especially during a dark winter of us all being locked in because of COVID-19. I cannot understate the huge impact the day ward nurses had on keeping me calm and focused – they listened, soothed, encouraged and genuinely cared. I was fearful about having chemo but committed. I was warned my treatment plan was going to be physically tough. I spent six weeks feeling like I was living outside my body – experiencing anxiety attacks for the first time, not knowing whether I was going to live or die. I was initially relieved to hear I could have a stem cell transplant – mainly because it offered life. How did you feel when you were told about your treatment plan? All I could see was flashing lights in my head spelling out ‘LYMPHOMA’. It went well but nine days later I had a call from one of the medical team – she told me I had lymphoma. Last year I had an operation to remove a lump in my bowel. How did you discover you had mantle cell lymphoma? Lucy, 47, explains the impact her diagnosis and treatment has had, and what has helped her recovery. She was told it could be treated by an autologous stem cell transplant (known as an ‘auto’) where her own stem cells would be collected before intensive chemotherapy, then transplanted back to her. 10 months ago, Lucy was told she had mantle cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
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