Doctors dismissed my symptoms as allergies, then diagnosed me with CANCER when I turned 26: These are the signs you shouldn’t miss this pollen season

A comedy writer was diagnosed with cancer on her birthday after initially mistaking her symptoms for serious allergies.

Kelsey Riddle, from Austin, Texas, was about to finish graduate school in 2017 when her legs began to itch so much that she scratched them until they bled.

As summer approached and she wrote her thesis, she attributed the itching to allergies and stress.

“I was very exhausted, very stressed, I didn’t feel very well,” said Riddle, now 32. The patient’s history. “If you’ve been to Austin, you’ve probably had some outbreaks, so it’s not unusual.”

But in August, he noticed that a lymph node in the back of his neck had grown to the size of a quarter.

As he continued writing his thesis, he noticed that a lymph node the size of a quarter was growing in his neck and moving. Generally, a lymph node moves if it responds to an infection.

Doctors prescribed several rounds of antibiotics, but they all failed, and his GP stated: “If this thing didn’t move, I’d be worried it was cancer.”

Just a month later, another nodule on her collarbone swelled overnight to the size of an egg.

On the morning of September 22, Ms. Riddle’s 26th birthday, doctors called her to diagnose lymphoma.

‘It was horrible. I woke up on my birthday to a phone call at 9 a.m.,” she said. “I just sat there and cried in my bed for a couple of hours.”

Ms. Riddle was diagnosed with stage 2A Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer that attacks lymph nodes and disease-fighting white blood cells.

The condition affects about 8,500 Americans (most of them under age 30 or ages 50 to 70) each year and is responsible for just under 1,000 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.

The overall five-year survival rate is about 75 percent.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is really a relief,’ because lymphomas are usually quite treatable,” Ms. Riddle said.

He received a litany of biopsies and scans to confirm staging before beginning treatment.

‘Something about having a machine analyze me for about an hour and tell me my life chances. It was very difficult for me to handle,” she said.

‘I remember leaving the PET scan upset and just collapsing in my dad’s van and having a disturbing conversation with him. He was always the one who had the answers for me and this time he didn’t.’

“It was one of those things where I think we were so emotionally exhausted that we just collapsed.”

That November, Ms. Riddle began ABVD chemotherapy, a regimen designed specifically for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which she said improved her symptoms “almost immediately.”

‘I was very lucky not to have an allergic reaction or anything like the chemotherapy itself.

‘My initial reaction was quite mild. I lost a little hair. After that, I ended up shaving anyway,” she said.

‘I felt slightly ill, but the itching in my legs resolved immediately. “I think it was possibly also because my immune system was being suppressed.”

‘It was very crazy. I immediately felt better after my first round.”

He also reported almost no nausea or side effects from the treatment. “It was actually pretty amazing.”

Chemotherapy lasted about four months, followed by a month of radiation. In July 2019, scans found no evidence of remaining cancer and Riddle has remained in remission since then.

Ms Riddle is now encouraging other young cancer patients to “take a more active role” in their care and speak up if doctors make them feel dismissed.

“Don’t feel trapped in this situation where someone won’t listen to you defend yourself,” he said.

‘If you really feel strongly about something, at least tell your doctor. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions.

“If you have a doctor who makes you feel stupid or ridiculous for asking these questions and you have the ability to find a new doctor, find a new doctor because you don’t have to deal with that.”