A young woman who began feeling "breathless" and noticed "bruises across her body" was prescribed antibiotics for tonsillitis, before receiving a devastating leukaemia diagnosis.
Rhianna McKenna, 28, said she first suspected something wasn't right when she began feeling breathless and dizzy one Saturday.
Later that evening her glands started to swell and she noticed several bruises across her body, but she put it down to feeling worn out and decided to get some rest.
She rested up all weekend but come Monday her condition hadn't changed. Her worried partner, who was working away from home for five days, urged her parents to call the GP.
Rhianna told Kent Live : "They (doctors) prescribed me antibiotics for tonsillitis. I was stuck in bed, I had zero energy and felt awful.
"When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I realised I had clots in my gums, so I called my dentist and they prescribed me antibiotics for a gum infection. I was taking antibiotics, but I was getting worse.
"I was so confused, scared and worried. I told myself to let the antibiotics kick in and I would soon be feeling brighter.
Then it got worse - my sight started to go in my left eye, things were blurry, and I didn’t know what was going on. My parents had been ‘nagging’ me to call 111 but I was so scared about what might be wrong with me that I begged them not to call."
Then one Friday Rhianna's life changed forever. She was rushed to hospital after collapsing in her home. She said: "Next thing I knew I was in A&E and they were trying to take my blood but it was just clotting. I must have fallen asleep because next I was woken by a hematology doctor who then said: 'Rhianna, I am really sorry, but I have to tell you—you have acute promyelocytic leukaemia.
"You are very sick, and it is important we get you better very quickly.'
"My heart broke," Rhiana said. "I was alone, in a room with nobody to help me process this information. I had to call my parents and tell them and then I had to call my partner and tell him. My heart was hurting so much, my brain was so confused."
She was rushed into the Intensive Care Unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London for urgent treatment and her parents were told the next few days were crucial. The doctors had to get her white blood cells down, or she would only have a few days left to live.
She said: "Day by day my white cell count began to drop and eventually I came off the ventilator and that was the start of my recovery journey. I was moved to Guy’s Cancer Centre, where I spent four weeks.
"I began taking ATRA and had to have daily blood transfusions or platelet transfusions. My mouth was covered in ulcers and sores and for the first two weeks I was living off yoghurts and jellies as they were soft. My hair also began to fall out in clumps and I was devastated."
Rhianna said she lost all of her independence with day-to-day functioning and lost some degree of her vision due to clotting and haemorrhages behind her eyes.
Due to Covid, Rhianna wasn't allowed any visitors, but the hospital allowed her partner and mum to visit her for 30 minutes on alternate days. When she was finally allowed to go back home, she continued having chemo twice a week as an outpatient.
"I started cycle two, five days as an inpatient having arsenic every day for five days," she said. "My body really struggled with it; I was having a lot more side effects this time around. I had headaches, sickness, extreme exhaustion, joint aches.
"And then I was told my bone marrow biopsy results were back… It was clear! No visual signs of leukaemia. I was so overwhelmed. It had been a tough couple of months, but it was all worth it because the treatment had worked," she said.
Rhianna's eyesight has now improved, but there was some permanent damage and she would never regain her full eyesight.
Rhianna said she was grateful both to the NHS and her family, partner and friends, who had made the journey "a little easier".
She had finished the treatment 19 months ago and had since gotten married to her "amazing" partner Aiden.
In November 2021, the couple found out they were pregnant, and Rhianna gave birth to Olivia the following July. The couple were delighted by the arrival of their daughter after initially being told it would be difficult for Rhianna to conceive due to her chemo.
Are you experiencing symptoms like Rhianna’s? The most common symptoms of leukaemia are fatigue, bleeding and bruising, repeated infections, fever or night sweats, bone or joint pain and shortness of breath.
If you have any of these symptoms, contact your GP and ask for a blood test. To find out more visit spotleukaemia.org.uk
