An Australian woman has revealed the symptoms of her crushing diagnosis that multiple doctors missed for more than a year. Photos / Instagram and Getty Images
An Australian woman has revealed the symptoms of her crushing diagnosis that multiple doctors missed for more than a year. Photos / Instagram and Getty Images
Australian woman Briony Benjamin battled exhaustion for a year and was eventually diagnosed with blood cancer after having her symptoms dismissed by multiple doctors.
Benjamin suffered chronic fatigue, itchy skin, night sweats and a never-ending cough. She visited three doctors to try to get to the bottom of her diagnosis, but her symptoms were brushed off as “hormonal”.
It took nearly 18 months of looking for answers when the 31-year-old was finally told the cause of her ailments: Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer.
“I was fobbed off,” Benjamin told 7 News, revealing what she has learnt from the experience is that you have to push for answers and trust your gut.
“You are the only one who knows your body and if it feels icky. If your GP isn’t listening, find someone who will.”
“Feeling awful had become my new normal. I was so used to always being a bit icky and tired that I had started to believe that this is how I would always feel,” Benjamin revealed in her book Life is Tough but So Are You. “Perhaps this is what becoming an adult felt like?
" … The doctors were telling me I was fine, that perhaps I was just ‘stressed’ and needed to rest more.”
She said her main symptom was exhaustion, even though she appeared healthy on the outside.
“I could just never get on top of the pervasive tiredness that had become a constant in my life,” she added.
“I was having sweats at night and always felt a bit crappy, but otherwise I appeared quite healthy. My body was sending me all the signs, but I didn’t yet know how to listen and trust it.”
Next came the four and a half months of chemotherapy. Photos / Instagram
However, after her mum lost a friend to blood cancer, she called Benjamin’s doctor and requested for her to be tested for the illness.
Her family was shocked when she tested positive for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“I remember my doctor telling me, ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We should just focus on the next three steps’,” she told 7 News.
Those steps included medical testing, screening and conversations around fertility.
“I was 31, I was still young – it was something I hadn’t really thought about,” she said. “I was basically told that all of the treatment would age my ovaries and potentially render me infertile.”
Benjamin underwent the process of freezing her eggs, which included being administered with hormone injections and other medications in the hopes of becoming a mum one day.
“It was an odd reprieve before I started chemo,” Benjamin said. “It was a small bit of light and joy before the main game began.”
The Sydney woman has now been in remission for five years, is “feeling so much better” - and is pregnant.
Benjamin has urged others to seek medical attention if they struggle with any of the following symptoms; anaemia, kidney damage, persistent tiredness, bone pain, dizziness, frequent or repeated infections, increased or unexplained bleeding or bruising, or high calcium levels in the blood.
