Tag Archive for 'high pulse'

First off, I’m not a doctor, and I recommend first that you should read the Mayo Clinic’s Hodgkin’s Disease page, or visit your doctor if you think you might have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or other kinds of cancer.

My personal experience with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma symptoms began when I was diagnosed with the disease in 2005. When I was diagnosed it was already Stage 3B cancer, the “B” standing for “symptomatic.” Many of the symptoms I hadn’t noticed at all, but some of them I did.

Cough – I’d had this cough for a very long time. I had gotten a cold from a co-worker once and the cough just never went away. I thought maybe it was allergies, and so did the first doctor I saw, who gave me Allegra (prescribed for allergies) to clear it up. In the end, we found that I had a huge, malignant tumor stuck in my chest between my heart, spine and lungs. You can see it in this PET scan picture – the tumor is the big black thing:

The tumor pushed on my lungs and created this persistent, unproductive cough. This was my first symptom of cancer.

Anemia – I would stand quickly and almost pass out. My hemoglobin was a low 8 when I was diagnosed, it should be a 12. I’d been taking iron pills like candy, but they hadn’t done any good.

Weight Loss – I lost 10 pounds…then 5…then another 10 pounds…then another 5…and by the time I’d lost 30 pounds, I knew something was seriously wrong. See these before and after pictures.

The first one I’m around 180 lbs, the second around 150 lbs or less. I felt like I was disappearing.

Night Sweats – When I was diagnosed, my oncologist asked, “Do you have night sweats?” I said no. He asked again, “Do you feel damp when you wake up?” I said, well, actually…yes, I guess I do. I’d thought it was just using too many blankets, but that wasn’t the case.

Fever after 5 pm – By the time I started going to doctors to see what was wrong with me, I started paying more attention to my body. I found that I had a low-grade fever every night after 5 pm. Somewhere between 99 and 101. Every night, and I’d never noticed it. This probably had a lot to do with the night sweats.

High Pulse – Again, my tumor was wedged in my chest, and because of that, it was pushing against my heart. My heart therefore needed to beat faster, so my pulse went up. Way up. It was consistently around 100 bpm, and it would sky-rocket when I did any activity at all.

Again, if you suspect you have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, go to your doctor immediately. There are some non-invasive things like blood tests that they can do right away to see if you might, in fact, have the disease.