"Hodgkins disease? Yay, least it's not cancer... oh"

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there I'll tell you how I became... A cancer patient.
Where to start... In December of 2012 I was 20 years old with a pretty good life. I was living with my parents, studying HNC Biomedical science at college and also working at my first proper job in a hospice charity shop. I had my kitten Sebastian to look after and my loving boyfriend I had been with for just over 4 years. I loved life. I started getting an incredibly annoying itch all over my arms then there was a cough that seemed to never stop followed by noticing lumps on my neck near my collar bones. It wasn't uncommon for me to have a cold so I suspected that it was some sort of infection causing the cough, that the lumps were swollen glands and the rash was something else minor but I knew just to be safe to go straight to the doctor as my dad had a history of cancer.

Fine Needle Biopsy

On the day I seen the doc I was assured it was most likely something a course of antibiotics would take away but he sent me to the hospital that day to get a fine needle biopsy, it was straight forward and painless. I decided then not to tell anyone except close family members, my boyfriend and best friend. 
A few days later I had a consultation appointment, my mum came with me. Sitting in the waiting room felt like a lifetime. Finally, it was time, I knew my diagnosis soon as I had walked in the room. The atmosphere just screamed "it's bad news!" and the face on the doc was one of pity. I can't really remember much of what was said other than the doc saying "it's Hodgkin's Disease" and my mother "Hodgkins disease? Yay, least it's not cancer..." and me tutting at her and explaining it is, indeed cancer. The doc told me "it's the good kind of cancer to have", if you say so. I remember feeling like, right, ok, what next, lets get on with it. On the taxi ride home I text my boyfriend telling him my results, and trying to assure him everything would be ok. I thought I was fine but on the taxi ride home I burst into tears talking to my dad. 

Surgical Biopsy

About a week or so later I was scheduled for a surgical biopsy of a lymph node on my neck... the idea of surgery terrified me but I kept telling myself its minor. It was minor, no complications and very little pain. The only scary thing that happened was coming around from the anaesthetic and thinking I was waking during surgery but nope. The results of the surgery confirmed the type of my cancer was nodular sclerosis Hodgkin's lymphoma. The CT scan I had following that confirmed it was stage 3AS, which meant it was fairly advanced, asymptomatic as I didn't have night sweats and dramatic weight loss and S meaning there was spleen involvement. Scary stuff, "It's the good cancer" kept spinning in my head. The last test that made a big difference to what could be done for my condition was the bone marrow test and thankfully it hadn't spread to my bones. When I went to get my stitches out the surgeon came to see me and apologised for ruining my christmas, like it was his fault. This changed my attitude to things quite a bit as I wasn't gonna let this ruin anything for me. I had an AMAZING christmas, lots or joy, food, snowy days and just general cheer. I was lucky in that I got to choose not to start chemo right away, I had the holidays to enjoy with my friends and family and that's exactly what I did.