I ignored a common winter complaint… by spring, I was nearly dead. I had left it weeks too late
When Lindsey Walker developed a cough in the winter of 2018, she brushed it off as just another seasonal cold.
But as the weeks passed, it only worsened and by the spring, she was plagued with bouts of deep, dry coughs that left her gasping for air.
In May, she had started to suffer from night sweats and a fever of 103F (39C).
Still, the then 27-year-old convinced herself it was nothing more than a cough she could not shake – after all, she was young, fit, and busy running her own company.
But in June, while sitting on the couch with her friend, Walker suddenly felt as though she couldn’t breathe.
She was rushed to the emergency room, where doctors made a devastating diagnosis: stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an aggressive cancer of white blood cells, and a large mass in front of her heart that was pressing on her organs.
Left untreated, studies show Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is fatal within just two to three years.
‘I started getting a cough at first and thought it was just a regular cough,’ Walker, now 35 years old, told the Daily Mail. ‘So, by the time I got diagnosed, I was already at stage four, and was like, “Oh, these were actual symptoms.”‘
Lindsey Walker, now 35 years old, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 27 years old after suffering from a cough that would not ease
In the 1960s, studies suggest that untreated patients suffering from the cancer lived 16 to 20 months on average. For those who were treated, barely ten percent survived for five years.
But today, thanks to advances in treatment, doctors often consider the cancer to be highly treatable. Overall, about 89 percent of patients now live for five years or more after their diagnosis.
And for those diagnosed at stage four like Walker, about 84 percent survive for five years or more on average.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is rare, diagnosed in about 8,900 people every year, but it is also one of the most common cancers among teenagers and adults in their 20s. Doctors say this may be because the immune system is more active at this age, raising the risk of a mutation arising that could cause the cancer.
Typically, patients suffer from symptoms including swelling in the neck, underarms or groin, a fever, drenching night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
But the American Cancer Society says that, if the cancer causes a mass to form in the chest, it may also cause coughing, trouble breathing or pain behind the breastbone.
Studies suggest about 15 percent of Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients suffer from a cough as a symptom of the disease.
Walker said she dismissed her symptoms because she was running her own PR business, which she set up three months after leaving college
Walker said: ‘I think I just kind of brushed it off because, at the time, I was working, I had a lot of movement happening with client campaigns, so I just didn’t pay much attention to it.
‘But, by the time I went to the ER, everybody kind of noticed that something was wrong. I had daily high fevers at that time, constant night sweats.’
At the time, Walker was dedicated to the business she started. After graduating from college and spending three months being unable to find work, she set up her own public relations agency, and, when her symptoms began, was traveling across the US to support campaigns for clients.
Following her diagnosis, doctors prescribed 12 rounds of chemotherapy to be administered over six months, with one round every two weeks.
Chemotherapy is often prescribed for the cancer and is frequently effective because the cancerous cells divide especially rapidly, making them easier to target with the treatment.
Walker received 12 rounds of chemotherapy in six months to treat her cancer
Walker said chemotherapy was ‘one of the most difficult things’ she had ever experienced, saying it made her hair fall out, left her struggling to swallow and, at one point, caused a blood clot to develop in her legs.
But by early September in 2018, about two months into the treatment, she said it had already caused her large tumor to shrink rapidly. And by the end of her treatment, doctors could not detect her cancer.
Even now, she gets scans about once a year, but the disease has not been detected since.
In the aftermath of her treatment, Walker wrote a book, Thriving Through the Storm, to help support other patients suffering from Hodgkin Lymphoma, and has been vocal about her experience in the hopes of helping others.
Walker credits her strong faith for helping get her through the cancer and treatment.
‘I would say that I am a person who believes in Jesus and that has definitely helped my healing,’ she said.
‘It has given me a greater appreciation for life and for circumstances that no matter what I have in front of me, I can get through it. When I go through things, I don’t let them define my life.’
