A really s*** Friday the 13th...

So, I'd had this lump in my neck for a while now - first noticed it before Christmas when we were baby clinical students learning how to examine lymph nodes. Thought nothing of it -anyway Christmas was coming up and I had a lot of turkey to eat. and roast potatoes. and chocolate. and mince pies. and syllabub. mmmm....

Then I was poking my neck (as you do) around the beginning of February and suddenly thought "HOLY MACAMOLY that's grown!!" To cut a long story short, I got fast-tracked through the NHS on a dizzying rollercoaster: GP > haematologist > ENT > biopsy under general anaesthetic > ENT. ENT was where I was sitting now with my mother as the surgeon said, "It's not good news I'm afraid - it is a lymphoma as we'd feared.....you have a type called Hodgkin's lymphoma."

THAT'S why you should never go to any medical appointments on a Friday the 13th.

If I'm honest, I already half-knew what it was and had got my crying in the previous three weeks. The unknown is a lot worse than the known...that's not to say my mum and I didn't both have a little sniffle outside the office later, while the nurse was off to get my notes. (So exciting: I have a hospital file now - just like the patients' Bible-like tomes I riffle through as a nosy medical student on my quest for knowledge...my file started off all thin with only one doctor's referral letter and is steadily growing fatter.)

Anyway we pulled ourselves together and went off to see the haematologist to discuss chemo (more on that later) and then to the medical school to discuss my time off. I'm going to have to resit third year - this was a bigger shock than the diagnosis. I'd somehow thought I would be able to do medicine AND have chemo - that notion was quashed pretty quickly. Chemo will apparently make me too tired and too immunocompromised to carry on with placements...oh well what the hell.

Then we went home and by this time I was terrifyingly hyper and scared all my flatmates. Packed quickly and got the train home with mother for TLC and to see my brother before he went off to Japan on his gap year. (am excited for him!! he's at the airport RIGHT NOW oh my!!)

This blog is just so I can keep everybody up to date on chemo/how I feel without having to repeat myself until my larynx wears out. and to remind myself what everything was like (one of my friends said to keep a journal or everything will be a blur in 3 months). Also so I can publish a book and make MILLIONS when this is all over.