Young woman diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at 20 – and how a suspected UTI saved her life

A suspected urinary tract infection saved Olivia Jennings’ life.

The 20-year-old had been struggling “with the flu” for a few months before going to the doctor and being diagnosed with late-stage blood cancer.

The otherwise “perfectly healthy” young woman struggled with symptoms in the months leading up to her devastating Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis.

Speaking to FEMAL, Olivia explained that her symptoms started in October 2022 when she started feeling fatigued and exhausted. She had lower back pain and a persistent cough that she thought would eventually go away.

She also had a small lump above her left collarbone that was painful to the touch.

Finally, when she couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable symptoms, the young Melbourne woman went to her GP for answers.

A simple blood test showed her inflammatory markers were high, indicating something was wrong, so she was tested for a urinary tract infection.

“One night as I was getting ready to go out, my doctor called to let me know the sample came back and indicated a urinary tract infection was present, which was strange because I had no symptoms at all,” Olivia, now 21 , said.

“She said she would normally send someone to the emergency room with these results, but I didn’t want to go. So I started antibiotics.’

The next morning, she woke up in a sweat and finally went to a private ER.

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As of October 2022, she felt fatigued, depressed, had low back pain and a persistent cough that she believed would eventually subside. She also had a small lump above her left collarbone that was painful to the touch

Doctors thought she had a urinary tract infection, but a CT scan found she had cancer. “It was a complete shock — when he mentioned my heart, I thought ‘that’s it for me, I’m going to die,'” said Olivia

“In the ER, the doctor said he had just had a kidney stone himself that showed up only on a CT scan and was in the same pain as I was,” Olivia said.

Although everything looked good on the ultrasound, the doctor was eager to do a CT scan to rule out anything ominous.

The doctor came back ‘pale’ and said ‘it doesn’t look good’.

“He said I don’t have a kidney stone, but I have swollen lymph nodes all over my stomach and also fluid in my heart,” she said.

“It was a complete shock – when he mentioned my heart I thought ‘that’s it for me, I’m going to die’.” At that point the doctors were pretty sure it was cancer.’

Olivia had to wait 45 minutes in an emergency before being transferred to a hospital where she waited 24 hours in the ward for a free bed.

She spent a week in hospital where doctors performed further tests, including a biopsy that revealed she had cancer in her neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis.

It was on January 25th when she was officially diagnosed with a blood cancer – a stage 3B Hodgkin lymphoma.

“I knew right away what kind of cancer it was because it’s the same one Delta Goodrem had,” she said.

“I always tell people my life feels like a movie because everything was perfect and it feels a bit like a nightmare now.”

Olivia got the terrible news in the hospital with her mother by her side. She didn’t know how to react.

“It was a strange feeling and for some reason the first thing that came to mind was, ‘I never got married,’ something I didn’t know I cared about so much,” she said.

Olivia kept her spirits up at the hospital by cracking jokes.

Doctors say she was lucky to catch the cancer when she did because it was about to spread further through the body.

“At first the doctors thought it was stage four, but the day I started chemotherapy they confirmed it was stage 3B,” she said.

Fortunately, she went to the doctor when she did, because the blood cancer was about to spread elsewhere in the body

A week after being told she probably had a urinary tract infection, the young woman began her first round of chemotherapy.

“Doctors wouldn’t wait for me to collect eggs, so they put me into temporary menopause so my eggs don’t get damaged during treatment,” she said.

“I didn’t have time to think or process everything that happened.”

Olivia has been on treatment for five months and only has three sessions left.

She said after the first two months, the cancer was “almost gone” and she doesn’t need surgery to “finish the job.”

Before she was diagnosed, Olivia said she exercised four times a week, never smoked a cigarette, barely drank alcohol, and ate mostly healthy.

She also has no history of cancer in her immediate family.

“Doctors pretty much said no matter what I did lifestyle-wise, it’s just one of those things where I couldn’t have prevented this,” she said.

“It’s just one of those cancers where your body just messes up, which is pretty frustrating, but luckily I was in a good position to go through chemo because I’ve taken such good care of my body.”

As for the side effects of the treatment, Olivia suffers from body aches, fatigue, illness, aches and hair loss.

“When my hair started falling out I really thought I’d be mad about it, but I wasn’t. I had long blonde hair and it’s all gone,” she said.

Olivia has been in treatment for the past five months and has three more sessions to go. And after the first two months alone, the cancer was “almost gone.”

Olivia hasn’t worked or studied since she became unwell, but she has made money renting out dresses from her wardrobe.

She has about 20 outfits available, a few of which change constantly every week, costing Olivia anywhere from $60 to $100.

“It gives me something to do and I like organizing everything — I even donate some of the money to charity,” she said.

Olivia hopes her story will raise awareness of this cancer commonly known as a “teenager’s disease.”