Hello Emelia 123,

I am so sorry to hear of your diagnosis, waiting for results is so stressfull. Untill they know whether you have Hodgkins or Non Hodgkins, high or low grade Lymphoma no one can know what treatment they will prescribe. But it will most likely be some combination of chemotherapy. I was diagnosed with low grade Non Hodgkins 13 years ago but last year it transformed to high grade.To be honest the treatment was very similar, but I understand they different drugs for Hodgkins.

Sometimes they delay treatment for a while, but this all depends on your symptoms and diagnosis, everyone is different.

What ever happens you will be given lots of information about any drugs and their possible side effects.

I do hope this helps a bit, things will seem more settled once you have your treatment plan.

Virtual hugs,

Christine x

As wolfhound says, the specifics of what drugs etc will depend on the type of lymphoma. I think there's approx 70 types so they have to be sure they know what one you have to get the best treatment.

However, a few tips now that I'm halfway through my Hodgkin's lymphoma treatment that I could suggest.

- now might be a good time to do a big cook up of a few things you can freeze for quick and easy meals when you have no energy. On my good days now I make a big thing of soup so I know it's got loads of veggies in and a Bolognese or chilli or stew just so I've got something in small easily defrost able portions when I have zero energy on my chemo weeks.

- arrange your room so that you've got everything easily accessible. For example we moved our bed away from the wall so that we could both have a bedside table. Also because I don't disturb my partner when  i'm up and down all night whereas before I was clambering over him to get out of bed.

- make sure you've got a bag of spare clothes and toiletries along with a list of medicines ready to go incase you need to go to the hospital. I was admitted after my first chemo after a couple of days because they hadn't got my nausea under control, I had no clue I was going to be admitted so went with nothing. Having a bag ready with clean clothes and toothbrushes and a charger is now a must for me as I was admitted a couple more times after that and it takes the strain off trying to get people to bring it in for you. Plus pack a book or a game or something you know how hospitals can be.

- download a symptom tracker. This will be super useful when you first start as symptoms are different for everyone. You will never know how you will personally react to chemo so having an app to track daybby day and hour by hour will help your medical team help you. E.g my nausea was horrendous at first but when I showed them just how frequently I was feeling sick they could see it was being particularly debilitating and prescibed me stronger meds. It's also a good way of tracking symptoms that usually get worse as chemo goes on, e..g fatigue and neuropathy.

- just be entirely honest with your medical team. You  will probably find the firsT couple of sessions to be the worst as they will be tweaking your medicines depending on how you react as everyone reacts differently. Just be entirely honest with how you feel and your symptoms. There are so many ways and meds they can give you to manage these so don't suffer on in silence!

- if your tastes start to go or you feel nauseous, don't eat your favourite meals. It sounds strange but you will end up associating it with chemo and I can't even face some of the food I used to love because I ate it when I felt rotten and now it's just a nasty reminder.

Just a few things off the top of my head.

I really hope it goes well for you and good luck.

We're here anytime.

Keep in touch 

Rose

Thanks for the advice, I have actually started batch cooking xx

Consultant said I'll start treatment ASAP! 

I know nothing about lymphoma, but the advice you have given is excellent for any of us on our cancer journey,  

Thank you

Christine