In 1994? I developed serious health problem which turned out to be Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia which is a rare blood dissorder that effects the red blood cells (RBC), where your own body destroys your RBCs. I was on various immunosuppressants to try and stop/slow this down and attending hospital weekly and biweekly for a number of years.
In 2000 the doctors decided to remove my spleen as they thought that is where all the damage is being done. Which turned out not to really help, instead of my body destroying my RBCs it changed to destroying my platelets, another blood dissorder called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), combined, this is known as Evan's Syndrome.
I have now had ITP for 13 years, using different immunosuppressants to try and stop this, none of which had made a good enough impact for long term use and having to attend hospital each week since. Two to three years ago i began to get stomach bleeds on about a monthly occurance and some very close calls.
A year and a half ago I began treatment on Romiplostim (Nplate), things where going well and then from April this year things seemed to be going incredibly well untill i started to develop a bad coungh which kept getting worse and worse, nothing seemed to help it.
Finally I had a CT scan and the results came back that I had swollen glands in my back. Two possibilities, first was Glandular Fever and the second was a form of Lyphoma, more tests where done and over the following couple of weeks the doctors where focussing more on which lymphoma it was than anything else.
I began seeing a new doctor who is in charge of patiants with Lymphoma and he decided to keep me in due to my cough, following day we find out that it is Marginal Zone Lymphoma and begin on R-CVP on the Friday (5th July)......