A Scots pharmacist has credited a heavy period for saving her life from cancer.
Victoria Lang has told how prolonged menstrual bleeding and bruising to helped her to identify the symptoms of Leukaemia. The 30-year-old realised something wasn’t quite right when she discovered she had some bad bruises that took a long time to heal, coupled with the onslaught of heavy bleeding.
They appeared about a month before her diagnosis - but she realised her state was way out of the norm when her time of the month was excessively burdening and with fresh blood. Victoria, from Banton in Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia at the age of 29.
A year on from the moment that changed her life, the pharmacist is speaking out about her experience in order to raise awareness of the symptoms of the disease.
She said: "All I can say is that my period was not normal, it was bright red and really heavy. Since I’m a community pharmacist I had all sorts of explanations in my head - I’d just had my Covid booster and there were murmurings of it messing with your period.
"Equally I’d been taking the maximum dose ibuprofen to deal with the after-effects of the booster. In my gut I knew something was wrong, so phoned the GP for a chat. I was booked in the next working day for bloods and by 5pm that same afternoon I was admitted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary."
It was there when medics broke the news to Victoria that she had cancer.
"It came as a complete shock and was a whirlwind to say the least", she said. "Within two hours my life had changed.
"In January I had done my prescribing course and I was working full time at this pharmacy and I went from arguably the highest functioning I could be to having leukaemia. My brain couldn't compute it. It was a big shock to the system."
A bone marrow sample confirmed Victoria's diagnosis with gruelling Tretinoin and arsenic treatment starting almost immediately. Following her diagnosis, she was kept in a high dependency unit for six weeks.
Victoria said: "It is the worst pain I have had and over the weekend they got it under control. I ended up on a cocktail of medicines and spent six weeks in hospital. I had some fluid on my lungs, and gained almost a stone in water weight over these two weeks but the worst aspect was excruciating bone pain in my hips and legs.
"I’m a size 10 and I had to get my husband to get me size 14 pants. The first two weeks were the toughest but the following three weeks I wanted to be at work."
Victoria lost all the muscle and strength in her legs as her body 'took a battering' from the treatment. It took up to 60 days before she started to see signs of improvement.
Now in remission and on the road to recovery, she wants others to understand the warning signs of Leukemia cancer as and when it displays early symptoms.
She said: "As a pharmacist, I want to warn others to be aware of the symptoms I have experienced- bruising easily, bruises not healing, a super heavy period and tiredness. People need to listen to their body and tell them if something is wrong. If they go to a pharmacist or a GP don’t be afraid to tell them your symptoms.
"I have learned to recognise the symptoms through my own experience and now if anyone presents at the pharmacy with similar symptoms I would urge them to get checked out. Leukaemia can happen to anyone, it’s indiscriminate in age sex or fitness level. Early diagnosis can be key, and it’s always worth asking, could this be Leukaemia?"
To understand more about Leukaemia and symptoms of the cancer, visit here.
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