It was almost a year ago now that my life took an unexpected turn. My husband and I were in Japan visiting our son, daughter-in-law and new born baby when I started feeling unwell. I am generally fit and healthy, but had a year of not feeling quite myself. I had to be hospitalised in December 2023 with pneumonia and never seemed to regain my normal level of energy and feeling of wellness. I went to see my GP, had some blood tests, but they believed there was nothing to worry about-it was probably still the after effects of the pneumonia. Fast forward to a very warm and humid June in Tokyo and I was feeling pretty rough. Our daughter joined us from New Zealand on our trip and was worried about the petechial rash that had appeared on my legs. She is an A&E doctor so she knows her stuff. Without the aid of blood tests, we assumed it might have something to do with the heat and the long haul flight-she wasn’t convinced. She urged me to go to the hospital to check it out, but I was resistant as, much as I had some days in bed, I was also able to get out and enjoy a Rugby match, a hike in the mountains and a day at Disneyland- How sick could I be? Right?
Well, it turns out, I could be very sick! The day before we were due to return to the UK, my health went down hill drastically and I could barely get out of bed. By this time my daughter had returned to New Zealand, but was in contact with us every day still worried about my condition. At this point I listened to her and with my son there to translate, we went to a local hospital’s emergency room. After some blood test and a CAT scan, the doctor informed us that I was very ill with a blood disorder, probably cancer and needed to get to a bigger hospital to be treated. We explained that I was due to fly home in 24 hours and that staying in Tokyo was not an option. The doctor gave me some intravenous antibiotics and with all of my results in an envelope, we returned to our hotel and prepared for our return trip to the UK. I say ‘we’, but it was my husband who took care of everything as I was barely able to get out of bed.
As you can imagine, the flight back was pretty horrendous, but we managed to get back to the UK and were picked up by my eldest son and got home around 2am. My husband had been in touch with our GP and had sent him all of the information from the Tokyo hospital. We had arranged an appointment for 10am. Our GP was amazing and realised straight away that I needed to get to hospital and arranged for the AMU department to take me in immediately. We rushed to hospital and within 2 hours, I was receiving my first chemotherapy treatment for suspected Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.