MCL

It was almost four years ago now that I was told that I would be dying within a year.

It all started when I discovered some lumps in my neck. I thought nothing of them, until a month later I noticed that they did not go away. They actually grew in size a bit. I asked some of my doctor friends for advice and I was asked to see a doctor pronto. Being employed by Shell, I first visited the Panaga Health Centre. I could still remember the worried look on the doctor's face. Some of my blood was taken for test and I was also referred to the Surgical Clinic of KB Hospital. From KB Hospital, I was then referred to the Surgical Clinic of RIPAS Hospital in Bandar and eventually to the Oral and maxillofacial surgical, or OMF, Clinic at the Specialists' Clinic in Bandar. After being passed from one clinic to another, I realised the gravity of the condition and I quietly hoped that it was not too serious. While being referred to the OMF Clinic, I was subjected to various test. More blood samples were taken and they all returned no conclusive result. At one point, I was subjected to the fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) treatment, where a fine needle was used to extract some cells from the lumps. It was a very painful treatment, my fist became white as I clenched it too hard. I was lucky that Cookie was working at the Clinic at that time and I was glad that she was there to hold my hands as I was undergoing the treatment. Even tests on the extracted cells from the lumps proved to be inconclusive. It was later decided that I would have to go under the surgeons' knives to remove the lumps and test them.

All the while, I had been seeing the doctor without telling my family. I did not want to worry them unneccesarily, so you could imagine their shock when I told my family that I would be operated on to remove the lumps. The day of the operation arrived and I was apparently in the operating theatre for four hours and the anaesthesia knocked me out for the whole night. Going under the anaesthesia was such a surreal experience. I did not feel as if I lost those four hours and it felt as if I blinked my eyes and the whole thing was done. I remember being woken up by my parents and my sister in the recovery room and I fell asleep almost immediately after that. From the surgery, I had a tube attached from the neck and the tube was connected to a container, which collected any blood front the wound.

I was asked to come back a week later, so I came alone as I presumed that it was a follow-up visit after the surgery. It was then that I was told that I had lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma to be exact. I felt my life came screeching to a halt and all my strength and energy had been sapped away from my body. I felt weak and I could not think much. I remember the doctor telling me that if I would need to get some treatment very soon; he told me that if I left it untreated I could die within a year.....

Read about mantle cell lymphoma here.