Hello Doug72, 

I am sorry to hear about what happened to you six weeks ago and how it led to the discovery that you had NHL. It must be so hard for you to have to stay in bed all this time because of the tumour in your back and to have to suffer these incontinence issues. I hope that you do have good medical support. Hopefully you will hear from someone on the forum who has had to deal with this kind of situation before. There is information on our website on this page on Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma which I hope you will find useful. 

I hope your first chemotherapy session goes well. Keep us updated if you get a chance. I thought I would also share this link with you on the chemotherapy treatment to help you prepare yourself. Should you have any questions about your treatment, our nurses would be happy to help so don't hesitate to give them a call on this free number 0808 800 4040 - their line is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. 

Best of luck with the start of your treatment. I hope that it works well for you! 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Lucie, thanks for your kind reply, I will look through those links if I get time (that's a joke, I have plenty of time). I won't be able to take advantage of the free phone number though as all of this happened whilst I was working in Mexico - which is where I still am. Good news is I have private healthcare,bad news is it's still costing me a lot of money. For example the hospital that can do pet scans and radiation is 4 hours away - that took an ambulance ride each way at a cost to me which I am hoping to get back but not sure. Also and more importantly my chemo is supposed to start today but they haven't authorized it yet. Stress. And talking of chemo, my oncologist just announced that it's not the 8 hours he said, but 5 days. It's a 5 day hospital stay every 3 weeks. Do you have any information on that type of regime on the forum anywhere? Oh, and he said I will definitely need a bone marrow transplant at the end.

i don't know if I'm doing all this here or coming home and finishing it with the nhs but I'm a tad overwhelmed with all this right now so any help you and the community can give would be so very welcome.

thank you,

Doug.