A mum encourages parents to believe their instincts after her daughter was diagnosed with rare blood cancer as doctors believed the child was faking her symptoms to have treats in the hospital.
Emma Osborne, a mom from Nottingham, England, said her 6-year-old daughter Elizabeth complained of excruciating pain in her hip. However, everything appeared to be normal on the blood tests and on the x-rays. Doctors thought the little girl was faking the symptoms to get treats in the hospital. "I was really frustrated because deep down I knew something was wrong with my child.", admits the mother.
However, the mother preferred to believe her instincts and especially her daughter. One day a lump appeared on little Elizabeth's cheek. It was then that he was diagnosed Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer. While Elizabeth has since started chemotherapy, her mom wanted to share her story to encourage other parents to trust their children, their own instincts and not hesitate to seek a second opinion. “It has been terrible and I hope no other parent will have to go through it. To think that your child has cancer for seven months without treatment is just horrible. I want to educate people to trust their parenting instincts because they know their child best. I was angry because I fought really hard for seven months, no one took me seriously. You just need to keep fighting. ", she told the DailyMail.
Eventually, the biopsy revealed a bone abnormality in the little girl's leg and then confirmed the presence of tumors in her face, throughout her skull and jaw. The girl was diagnosed on October 6 and started chemotherapy.
Lymphoblastic lymphoma is a rare type of fast growing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It develops when the body produces abnormal lymphocytes, cancer can form B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes. Symptoms can include chest pain, night sweats, unexplained changes in weight, and shortness of breath. Treatment can include chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and sometimes radiation therapy. Sometimes surgery may be necessary to remove obstructive tumors.