Harjeet Kaur

Lymphoma T-cell non Hodgkin with HLH

Last year 2019, I received the scariest, most heart-wrenching news. My life flipped upside down on 28/08/19, I was diagnosed with Big “C” stage IV (subcutaneous t-cell lymphoma)with HLH(Autoimmune disease). Its a very rare type of cancer, only 150 cases reported globally. The diagnosis came after staying in the hospital about 3months with high fevers & rigour everyday. After listening to this news I started trembling in fear & cried why me? What have I done wrong to deserve this? Why at this point in my life…. I am just in my 30’s.

Being diagnosed with Cancer is news no one wants to hear in their lifetime. It was completely unexpected & the most the difficult challenge I had to face. 😵

I am grateful for my incredible family & close friends who went above and beyond to support me and still do. They made me feel strong enough to fight this battle. There have been days and months I have been bedridden due to pain, bones that ache, nausea, High-fever, feeling exhausted, no taste, mouth sores & weakness. It’s a mixture of feelings that moves deep into your soul and will change your life physically and emotionally.

I had to go for 6 chemos as per my regimen. But life is no more easy when cancer hits you, it makes your life hell, I had my Pet CT Scan on 14th Nov 19 and my body was not showing any improvement and I had to go for 5 cycles of chemo again and to top it up I was told the best treatment option given my medical scenario will be a stem cell transplant after am under at least partial remission. During this whole journey I have battled many hardships. I cried and was anxious, what will happen next. will I survive ? & beat this shit out of me, this completely messed up my head.

My stem cell was done on 14th April 2020, my re-birth that’s what Dr & Nurses use to tell me (I am a newborn). My donor was my brother (100%match), my life saviour. Cancer has given me more strength and positivity to live life, be strong and nothing shall bring you down. I am 6 months post SCT & Neutropenic (means I have very low white blood cells to fight infection, hence isolation). As hard as this is I know I am one of the fortunate ones to have my beautiful family right by my side and my friends phoning & texting daily. I have been recovering slowly, overall the prognosis is good, so I am very hopeful.

I am definitely not out of the woods yet, i still have a very long way to go in terms of recovery but i feel proud to have made it this far to have transplant which is probably the hardest thing i have ever had to do in my life to date.