24-Year-Old Woman Was Urged To Check A Lump On Her Neck— She Was Diagnosed With Hodgkin Lymphoma While Pregnant

“I had a lot of different symptoms … thinking nothing of it. Itchy skin, night sweats. I didn’t really think much of it until I got the lump in my neck,” Jones recounted to KARK 4 News.

She admitted to not getting checked until a “concerned family friend” encouraged her to see a doctor.

“I ended up going to the emergency room. I wasn’t really sure what to do,” Jones said, recalling how she was with her parents when her sister, who is a pediatrician, happened to call around the time they were thinking about going to get her lump checked.

Jones said her sister helped her get an appointment with a doctor that day. “Without any scans or anything like that, he [the doctor] just kind of did a feel around my neck, and he said, ‘I’m 90% sure you have some type of lymphoma,’ but we’re not exactly sure what kind,” she explained. “And I was already pregnant at the time, and it was a very scary time.”

Luckily, Jones was able to continue with her treatment plan without major changes due to her pregnancy, allowing her to focus on both her health and preparing for motherhood.

“After I got a clear diagnosis, I was able to go ahead and start chemotherapy. A unique thing about being pregnant and taking chemo, I was able to see a high-risk OB [obstetrician],” Jones said.

Jones received chemotherapy throughout her pregnancy and followed her treatment schedule as planned.

After giving birth, she took a short two-week break before returning to treatment.

Looking back on what helped her get through that arduous time, she said, “My support system was amazing. My parents, who are now both deceased, they were amazing during that time. I ended up living with them to have the support that I needed.

“My best friend ended up moving back to Arkansas and coming to just help out where she could. And so, my sister, like I said, she is a physician, so she was there for all of those type of things for me. My support system, my family and friends have always been wonderful, and they’re still wonderful to this day.”

Jones hopes that by sharing her story, others will understand that cancer isn’t just for “older people.”

“I like to give hope and encouragement and any type of support I can to anyone who is going through this journey,” she explained.

Offering insight into her work with CARTI, the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute, a nonprofit cancer care network that provides treatment and support services through facilities across Arkansas, she said, “I work behind the scenes with insurance and prior authorizations, but that’s still a very important part of everything that they’re going through.

“So even though I don’t see these patients face to face, it still makes me do my job to the best of my abilities. They need nothing else to worry about, so let me take care of the behind-the-scenes things.”

Pregnancy & Cancer

The American Cancer Society says the types of cancer pregnant women may experience include:

• Breast Cancer
• Melanoma
• Leukemia
• Cervical cancer
• Thyroid cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Colon cancer
• Lymphoma

During pregnancy, the body undergoes several changes making cancer-related changes harder to detect. Still, some things to be watchful for include:

• Hormone levels change during pregnancy, which causes breasts to become larger, lumpy, and/or tender.
• Rectal bleeding could possibly be due to benign hemorrhoids, a common occurrence during pregnancy, or from colon or rectal cancer.
• Feeling tired could be from pregnancy weight gain or from low red blood cell counts (anemia), which can be seen in leukemias and lymphomas or during pregnancy.
• As the fetus and uterus grow throughout pregnancy, ovarian tumors get more difficult to detect.

Staying current on all of your health and cancer-related screenings will help you manage your cancer risk.

What is Hodgkin Lymphoma?

Lymphomas are a type of blood cancer that begin in lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. They are separated into two categories: Hodgkin Lymphoma and non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma being the more common type.

RELATED: Keytruda Extends Life for Those Fighting Hodgkin Lymphoma & It’s Now FDA-Approved as Treatment

Hodgkin Lymphoma usually starts in a part of the lymph system called B cells, which make proteins called antibodies that help protect the body from germs. With those cells compromised, it’s more difficult to protect your body from germs may may increase the risk of infections.

The disease predominantly is diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 to 40, and over 55. Symptoms include severe itching, swelling in lymph nodes in your neck, night sweats, fever, unexplained weight loss, daily fatigue, decreased tolerance to alcohol or experiencing pain in lymph nodes after consuming alcohol.

Understanding Blood Cancers

Despite being relatively rare, progress in research and treatment means there’s a good chance many patients will make a full recovery.

It’s also interesting to note that there are more than 40 different types of lymphoma.

“Lymphoma is split up into a number of different categories,” Dr. Elise Chong, a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine, tells SurvivorNet.

“The first distinguishing breakpoint, if you will, is non-Hodgkin lymphoma versus Hodgkin lymphoma,” she adds, “and those sound like two different categories. But non-Hodgkin lymphoma comprises the majority of lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma is a single specific type of lymphoma.”

What Kind of Lymphoma Do You Have? Why Your Type Matters

Hodgkin lymphoma has giant cells called Reed-Sternberg cells. The presence of these cells, which can be seen under a microscope, will help your doctor determine which of the two lymphoma types you have.

Another difference between these two types of lymphoma is that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to spread in a random fashion and be found in different groups of lymph nodes in the body, while Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to grow in a uniform way from one group of lymph nodes directly to another.

These two different types of lymphoma behave, spread and respond to treatment differently, so it’s important for you to know which type you have.

Your doctor will tailor your treatment to the stage of your cancer, as well as other factors, such as how aggressive it is. Chemotherapy is generally part of the treatment at every stage. But in the early stages, radiation may be added, because stage I and II lymphomas tend to respond well to radiation.

Dr. Chong also told SurvivorNet,  “The one thing that I always reassure people about when they are diagnosed with advanced stage lymphoma is that, unlike other cancers, where advanced stage is a death sentence, that’s certainly not the case for lymphoma.”

RELATED: Woman, 22, Believed Her Struggles at the Gym Stemmed From Slacking Off, But After Shortness of Breath, a Rash & Groin Pain, She’s Diagnosed With Stage 3 Hodgkin Lymphoma

Spotting the Symptoms

The first lymphoma symptoms can be so subtle that you might not even notice them. It may not be until you visit your doctor for a check-up that you discover there could be a problem.

“People say, ‘But I feel completely fine,’ and that’s very normal,” Dr. Chong explains. If a lump is found, often “it’s only because either someone palpated a lymph node and felt some swelling in their neck or in their groin or under their arm.”

If you are at risk for this cancer because you had cancer or an organ transplant in the past, you have an autoimmune disease, or you have an infection such as HIV or Epstein-Barr, it may be worth watching out for symptoms like these:

• Swollen lymph nodes in your neck, armpits, or groin
• Weight loss
• Tiredness
• Fevers
• Swollen belly

But keep in mind that these are more likely to be symptoms of something far less serious, such as a run-of-the-mill infection.

There are also a group of symptoms doctors refer to as “B symptoms.” Those include a fever, night sweats, or weight loss.

“If people are having any of these symptoms, it’s really important that they tell their physician early so that the proper testing can be done,” Dr. Chong says.

Finding Lymphoma With Imaging Tests

Sometimes the first sign of lymphoma appears not as a symptom, but as a clue on an imaging test that’s done for another reason. “I have patients who’ve gotten into car accidents and said, ‘I had a scan of my body and they saw these lymph nodes,’ and that’s how initially the lymphoma was found,” says Dr. Chong.

If your symptoms appear first, your doctor might send you for an imaging test. An x-ray or computed tomography (CT) scan can identify the cause.

RELATED: Age, Race, and Exposures Might All Factor Into Lymphoma Risk

The only way to confirm whether you have lymphoma is with a biopsy. Your doctor will remove a piece of tissue from a lymph node, or the entire node. Then, a specially trained doctor called a pathologist examines the sample in a laboratory to see whether it contains lymphoma cells, and if so, which type of lymphoma they are.

A biopsy can either put your mind at ease by letting you know that you don’t have cancer, or give you a sense of direction by giving your doctor a launching-off point to plan your treatment. If you do have lymphoma, you can get at least some comfort from knowing that there are a number of good treatments to help manage it, even if you’re diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Avoiding Provider Bias – Is Your Doctor Understanding You?

While your doctor has undergone years of training and practice, they are still human, and may come with their own set of biases that can impact how they treat patients.

To combat these biases and really get the most out of your interactions with your doctor, you should provide her or him with plenty of information about your life and ask plenty of questions when things aren’t clear. To better understand how you should approach conversations with your doctor, we previously spoke with Dr. Dana Chase, gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology.

According to Dr. Chase, physicians, like many of us, can be a bit biased when seeing patients. She made it clear that these biases are rarely sinister, but rather unconscious and more subtle.

She explained, “We have certain beliefs that we don’t know about. We might look, for example, at an older woman, and just by the way she looks we might make certain assumptions, and we might not even know that we’re making these assumptions.”

Let’s Talk About Provider Bias

Clearing up misconceptions is important, but so is understanding what your doctor is telling you, Dr. Chase noted. Overall, she advises women to speak up and ask questions when they don’t understand something.

“It’s never a bad thing to ask for something to be repeated, or to ask the doctors to explain it in different terms.”

So next time you go to your physician, speak up if you need clarity, so your doctor can understand you and you can understand them.

The Importance of Advocating for Yourself

Standing up for yourself is important. If you feel that you’re being dismissed or mistreated by a doctor. Getting a second opinion is crucial if something doesn’t feel right. Experts tell SurvivorNet that no one knows your body better than you, so if you feel like something is wrong, keep pushing for answers.

Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet that sometimes, patients need to be pushy.

“From a doctor’s perspective, every problem should have a diagnosis, a treatment, a plan for follow-up, and a plan for what happens next if the treatment doesn’t work,” Dr. Murrell said.

And as a patient, “If you don’t feel like each of these four things has been accomplished, just ask! Even if it requires multiple visits or seeing additional providers for a second opinion, always be your own advocate.”

Ultimately, patients advocating for their health can lead to better patient outcomes. This is especially important when you find your doctor has misdiagnosed your symptoms.

A component of advocating for yourself in healthcare includes going back to the doctor multiple times and even getting multiple opinions.

Dr. Steven Rosenberg is the National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery, and he previously told SurvivorNet about the advantages of getting input from multiple doctors.

Cancer research legend urges patients to get multiple opinions.

“If I had any advice for you following a cancer diagnosis, it would be, first, to seek out multiple opinions as to the best care. Because finding a doctor who is up to date with the latest of information is important,” Dr. Rosenberg said.

Questions for Your Doctor

If you are dealing with a lymphoma diagnosis, it’s important to ask your doctor a series of questions so you will have an idea of what your next steps will look like. To help you during this difficult time, SurvivorNet has some questions to kickstart your conversation with your physician.

• What type of lymphoma do I have?
• What does my pathology report say about my diagnosis?
• Should I get a second opinion before I explore possible treatment options?
• Based on my diagnosis, what do you anticipate my treatment path?
• What common side effects should I expect when I begin treatment?
• Will I be able to continue working and performing normal daily activities during treatment?
• Where can I get help working with the insurance company regarding treatment costs?
• Who do you recommend I get mental health help from during my treatment?

If you have questions you want answered, SurvivorNet’s proprietary AI tool “My Health Questions” is designed specifically for patients and caregivers.

WATCH: How One Cancer Survivor and Her Sister Used “My Health Questions” to Navigate Care

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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