Life Beyond Lymphoma: Addressing Post-Treatment Health Challenges
Disease Concerns After Lymphoma
Once treatment with lymphoma ends, it is normal for the uncertainty you felt during treatment to continue. For many people with lymphoma, treatment may remove or destroy the cancer. Completing treatment can be both stressful and exciting and may represent a new chapter in your life. You may be relieved to finish treatment, but find it hard not to worry about the lymphoma growing or coming back (this is called recurrence). Recurrence is a very common concern amongst people who have had lymphoma or any kind of cancer.
There is also a possibility that your type of lymphoma may change over time. This is referred to as transformation.
Depending on the treatment that you received, there is a small possibility that a secondary cancer may develop down the road.
It is perfectly natural to feel anxious or scared but you can feel assured that with time, your fears will lessen. Also, it just as normal to feel like your fears have lessened and you have gained some distance from your experience, only to have something trigger them out of the blue.
Many people who have gone through what you have gone through have learned to live with this uncertainty and they are leading full and productive lives. As a part of moving on and to help you with some of the topics discussed here, you may wish to download a copy of the LBL Guide. You can use this guide to document your treatment history as well as make notes on a number of topics covered in Life Beyond Lymphoma. This document can act as a journal for you and part of it may be useful to share with your healthcare team during your follow-up care.
References:
American Cancer Society. What happens after treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma?
