Suffering from blood cancer, the 6-year-old girl complained of severe hip pain, despite normal x-rays and blood tests. For seven months, doctors thought she was making up her symptoms.
- After seven months of medical wandering, the little girl was diagnosed on October 6 and started her chemotherapy.
- Hodgkin’s disease (or Hodgkin’s lymphoma) is a very particular form of lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system characterized by the uncontrolled growth of singular white blood cells.
When something is wrong, you have to insist with the doctors, against all odds. That’s the message a mum wants to get across after her daughter, who has blood cancer, is accused by doctors of making up her symptoms to get candy at the hospital.
“I knew something was wrong”
“I was really frustrated because deep down I knew something was wrong with my child,” tells the mother of the family in the DailyMail. “It was terrible and I hope no other parent has to go through this. To think that your child has cancer for seven months without treatment is just awful. I want to educate people to trust in their parenting instincts because they know their child best. I was angry because I fought so hard for seven months, no one took me seriously.” continues Emma Osborne.
Her 6-year-old daughter Elizabeth complained of severe pain in her hip, despite normal x-rays and blood tests. While the doctors do not listen to either the mother or the child for months, a tumor appears on the cheek of the little girl. Once analyzed, the diagnosis falls: it is Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer. Additional scans revealed tumors throughout Elizabeth’s skull and jaw, as well as a hip deformity. The girl was diagnosed on October 6 and started chemotherapy.
Hodgkin’s disease (or Hodgkin’s lymphoma) is a very particular form of lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system characterized by the uncontrolled growth of singular white blood cells, lymphocytes, which are transformed into Reed-Sternberg cells. It is often revealed by a painless swelling of a lymph node (or “adenopathy”).
Symptoms of hodgkin lymphoma
Persistent, painless swelling of a lymph node in the upper body, i.e., neck, collarbone region, armpits, or groin should suggest lymphoma or Hodgkin’s disease (a lymphoma swollen in lymphoma is normally not as painful as an infected lymph node). This lymph node is all the more suggestive of a lymphoma as it is accompanied by signs testifying to a generalized process:
• Chills
• Variations in body temperature
• Fever (especially at night)
• Decreased appetite
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unusual general fatigue
• Persistent cough
• Persistent itching all over the body with no apparent cause or associated skin or liver disease
• Headache
At a later stage, patients may experience pain in the lymph nodes after consuming alcohol.
.
