MCL and Me

About 4 weeks ago I started to have a few heart palpitations where it felt like I had a run of three or four heart beats in rapid succession. It's quite a hard feeling to explain but you'll know if you ever have one. I started getting these about three or four times an hour. It didn't have any other effects, no rapid heartbeat in general, no breathlessness, blood pressure normal. Both my Mom and Dad suffer from Atrial Fibrillation so I know a little bit about what to look for. I mentioned this to my consultant on my visit before last ( 5th February ) and she said she wanted to get it checked out to make sure there was not some underlying heart problem that might affect what Chemotherapy I can have. That day I had an ECG and a chest x-ray. These have subsequently come back fine but as the palpitations do not occur regularly it's pretty lucky to catch one on an ECG. Between then and my last visit ( 26th February ) I had a nasty bout of flu but the palpitations settled ...

I'd had this lump by the side of my ear for 12 months or more but just thought it was one of those sebacious cysts people get now and then. I'd had a small one in my neck years ago that the GP had said was just such a cyst and as this one was soft, round edged and mobile I assumed it was another one. In January 2007 I went to the doc's with sinus trouble that I get from time to time and need antibiotics to shift. While the doc was examining me she noticed the lump by my ear and decided to get it checked out and referred me to the hospital. In the time between that referral and my first appointment ( three months away ) the glands in my neck came up as I was having a bit of a winter cold. Well the one gland never went down again. After being poked with various needles etc. the hospital decided the only way to work out what these lumps were was to whip one of them out. So I was in as a day case to have the one in my neck removed under a general anaesthetic. I got the res...

Welcome to the inaugural post to this blog about my treatment for Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL). The two main purposes of this blog are:- To provide a place for friends, family and colleagues to find out how I am doing if they want to , without having to be spammed with updates by email from me. To act as a journal for me to look back on during my recovery. Various leaflets about cancer treatment suggest this is a good idea. Although I don't expect many people I don't know in some way or other to look at this blog it's possible some people who are having to deal with cancer , maybe even MCL, may come across this blog. So a secondary purpose is to provide a source of information about what my treatment is like and how it affects me in the hope that this might help other people cope with MCL in particular and chemotherapy in general. People who don't know me can find out a bit more about me by clicking on my profile on the left and can read the story so far by reading this p...