Comment from: Lana, 35-44 Female (Patient)Published: March 03
I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in April 1996. I was pregnant (Age: 30/31) when my symptoms first started. (I had my baby in January 1996.) I was extremely fatigued. I had night sweats that would saturate the sheets. (I slept on beach towels!) My back would itch so bad that I literally drew blood scratching it. (This drove me crazy!) I did not experience weight loss. My blood pressure ran extremely low. I had three swollen lymph nodes in my neck. One was egg-sized. I was finally diagnosed when I "demanded" a biopsy of a lymph node in my neck. After my staging tests, I was diagnosed at stage II. Soon after that I started a treatment of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. I have had no recurrences; however, I must admit I have never felt the same since. I tire very easily, have shortness of breath and have gained a lot of weight. (This was never a problem before.) However, I am so thankful to have had these past 13 years to raise my four children!
Comment from: Juls, 35-44 Female (Patient)Published: October 13
My Hodgkin's disease started back in 1991. I had been extremely fatigued but was busy with college and wedding plans and thought nothing of it. I also had itchy skin and then developed a pretty bad cough. I noticed I had large swelling at the base of my neck. That is what prompted me to go to the doctor. After a week of it still being there, I went back to the doctor who then sent me to a general surgeon for a biopsy and after the biopsy they did a post-op chest X-ray and could tell that it was most likely Hodgkin's disease, and it was. I was then referred to an oncologist and went through eight months of chemo (ABVD) and six weeks of radiation. I have been cancer-free ever since.
Comment from: stillhere, 25-34 Male (Patient)Published: March 26
I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at the age of 25. I experienced pain in my chest, shortness of breath, and my lips turned purple. I went to the doctor and had a CT scan performed. The scan revealed a tumor pushing against my wind pipe. I went through chemotherapy and radiation therapy and have been cancer-free since 2005.
Comment from: marlana, Female (Patient)Published: March 03
I woke up one day with a strange lump about the size of a golf ball on the left side of my neck. I went to my family doctor who sent me straight to a throat and neck specialist who did not think the lump was anything to worry about. He put me on antibiotics thinking it was an infection, causing a lymph node to swell. The lump got bigger and he finally ordered a CT scan that showed about nine masses in my neck area. The large lump was then taken out and proved to be stage II Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Comment from: Relief, 13-18 Female (Patient)Published: December 08
When I was 16 years old, I started getting night sweats every day, and they gradually grew more powerful. I also started getting bad fevers, and I was losing a lot of weight, so I went to the doctor. He did blood tests on me, and he never found anything. So, he wanted to do a CT test. After that, he called me saying I had to come back immediately because they found something. So, I went back, and he told me I had cancer, but that he didn't know which one. He referred me to a cancer specialist, and they did many testes and biopsies. They told me I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had three weeks of chemo and one month of radiation. Now, I'm cancer-free.
Published: July 28
I first experienced a dull kind of pain on my left underarm and, soon after that, persistent flu-like symptoms (low grade fever, fatigue, coughing). I waited for a couple of weeks and as the fever wasn't going away, I visited my doctor. He gave me a series of blood tests in which everything looked fine except for the level of white bloods, which was higher than normal. The doctor suspected some sort of infection and repeated the tests over the course of three months. As the tests came back with virtually the same results, he referred me to the local hospital. By the time I went to the hospital for examination, I had a swollen lymph node just above my collarbone on the left side. The relatively frequent symptom of itchiness was also present at the time. A needle biopsy confirmed that I had lymphoma (although it was mistakenly identified as follicular Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). A surgical biopsy about two weeks later established that I had Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage IIB.
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I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in April 1996. I was pregnant (Age: 30/31) when my symptoms first started. (I had my baby in January 1996.) I was extremely fatigued. I had night sweats that would saturate the sheets. (I slept on beach towels!) My back would itch so bad that I literally drew blood scratching it. (This drove me crazy!) I did not experience weight loss. My blood pressure ran extremely low. I had three swollen lymph nodes in my neck. One was egg-sized. I was finally diagnosed when I "demanded" a biopsy of a lymph node in my neck. After my staging tests, I was diagnosed at stage II. Soon after that I started a treatment of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. I have had no recurrences; however, I must admit I have never felt the same since. I tire very easily, have shortness of breath and have gained a lot of weight. (This was never a problem before.) However, I am so thankful to have had these past 13 years to raise my four children!
Related Reading: Hodgkin's disease | night sweats | swollen lymph nodes