It took four years before Vanity knew what cancer she had: ‘I was so scared’

It took Sander Elbertsen (31) a year and a half before he heard that he was a nun–Hodgkin had: a rare form of lymph node cancer. “Uncertainty is killing.”

“I walked around with a stomach ache, went to the doctor, was sent home a few times, but it didn’t go away. And then I went into that medical mill anyway. I had six internal examinations, but they kept saying they couldn’t find anything In retrospect, they didn’t look far enough.

I was given prednisone to suppress the stomach ache and was sent home with it. When I started sweating at night, my wife said, I think you have cancer. She suddenly recognized sweating as a symptom, she works in healthcare, and then back to the doctors. “

Tons of blood taken

“We had blood taken numerous times, and something came up all the time. But no cancer. My brother and mother both have Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. So the doctors were about to get that stamp. to stick on my complaints, but it didn’t feel right for me I kept suspecting that something was wrong, they looked inside one more time, further than before, and then they came across a tumor.

It sounds crazy, but it was redeeming to hear that. Hey huh, finally we know what it is. Finally we can do something. “

Killing

“Fortunately I was treated well, I got eight chemotherapy sessions, a new one every two weeks. That was tough, but the uncertainty of the year and a half before that destroyed more, I can tell you.

That is why I am so shocked by the news that there are many more people with whom it takes a long time before it is clear what they have. I know doctors are only human, and they really do their best, but that uncertainty, all that waiting, I want to talk about it. Because: it’s killing. “

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