When Govind Sandhu finished a half marathon in May, he felt surprised by how challenging it was.
“I remember finishing the race going, ‘This felt just a little harder than expected,’” the 38-year-old from Sydney, Australia, tells TODAY.com. “The next day, I woke up and I had a swollen knee.”
He expected a puffy knee because he had recently fallen and injured it. But what occurred next felt puzzling.
“I started getting really wild flu-like symptoms out of nowhere. I couldn’t get warm. I had a really long hot shower,” he explains. “I went to bed, and I had wild sweats the whole night where I was just drenched.”
About a month later, Sandhu learned what caused his mysterious symptoms — he had stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“Leading into my diagnosis, I’m the fittest and healthiest I’ve ever been,” he says. “What I’ve learned through this whole process is that cancer really doesn’t discriminate.”
Unusual symptoms
Sandhu, a self-proclaimed “fitness fanatic,” enjoys CrossFit, runs marathons, and recently finished the 75 Hard challenge. The weekend before the marathon, he was visiting Tasmania and trail running with friends when he had “a really big fall.”
“It was very bizarre for me to do that,” he says. “I got quite cut up and bruised up and had a bit of a swollen knee.”
He rested before the half marathon but did not do as well as he expected on race day. When his knee became swollen and he developed flu-like symptoms, he first wondered if he was rundown from seasons changing. After a week of symptoms, though, he began to worry.
“I still didn’t feel well, which is really weird for me,” he says. “I went to the doctor and explained my symptoms, which were really bad sweats throughout the week, really bad body aches on the back of my shoulders and neck, and also feeling really tired.”
His doctor checked his heart and lungs and tested him for flu and COVID-19. The results indicated he did not have an infection, and the doctor recommended that Sandhu track his symptoms over the coming days.
“Over the next two weeks, I didn’t get better. I deteriorated,” he says. “My throat would get really sore anytime I would swallow, but also around my chest I had just a bit of pain.”
Still feeling sick, Sandhu returned to his doctor and asked for blood tests, as well.
“I also said, ‘I have a really sore throat, and I don’t know what it is, and it seems uncommon,’” he says. “She checked my throat and was like, ‘OK your throat does seem tight. It could be fibroids maybe. Let’s get an ultrasound.’”
His bloodwork revealed that he was “a bit anemic” and that his white blood cell count was low, which the doctor suspected could be from fighting off a cold. But the ultrasound did find something unusual.
“(My doctor said), ‘The main concern is you’ve got some lumps in your throat. To make sure it’s nothing sinister, we need to send you off for a CT scan,’” Sandhu recalls. “At this point that’s when I start to go, ‘Holy s---, what is going on here?’”
The CT scan revealed that the lumps did not “look friendly” and Sandhu’s doctor told him to go to the emergency room so he could undergo more tests and a biopsy. There, doctors gave him an idea of what he was facing.
“I was advised that it looked like I have lymphoma,” he says. “The next steps ... would be to see a specialist and start that process.”
Doctors detected “a bit of fluid buildup around (his) heart,” and it appeared as if something was dangling off one of the valves. They ran tests on his heart to make sure it was strong enough to withstand anesthesia during a biopsy of the mass in his chest.
Before the biopsy, a PET scan found what appeared to be cancer around his pancreas and under his diaphragm.
“They’re then able to conduct a biopsy on me,” he says. “Then I essentially wait for the results to go, ‘Yes, you have non-Hodgkin lymphoma.’”
Sandhu felt “totally shocked, speechless, super emotional” when he was diagnosed June 12 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive and the most common type of lymphoma, according the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
“It’s stage 4 because I have it in multiple parts (of my body) above the diaphragm,” he says. “Then (it’s) below the diaphragm around the pancreas and liver area.”
Doctors recommended six cycles of chemotherapy once every 21 days to treat it. He’s also receiving an immunotherapy. So far, he’s responded well to therapies, and the mass in his chest has shrunk.
“(Cancer) was the furthest thing from my mind,” Sandhu says. “When I initially started to get sick, I didn’t think it’s cancer.”
Lymphoma
Cancer that originates in the lymphatic system is considered a lymphoma and it falls into two main types — non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the National Cancer Institute. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is common and can spread rapidly to the spleen, liver and bone marrow, according to the NCI.
The organization says that signs, called B symptoms, include:
- Fever
- Intense night sweats
- Weight loss
- Chest pain
- Exhaustion
- Enlarged lymph nodes
- Abdominal tenderness or bloating
Treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma varies but include traditional therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery as well as stem cell transplant or targeted treatments, the NCI notes.
The Lymphoma Research Foundation says that even though it’s an aggressive cancer, doctors are able to cure it in many cases.
Raising awareness
Since being diagnosed, Sandhu has candidly shared his experience on social media.
“What I’ve realized through this is you don’t know what you don’t know,” he says. “It really motivated me to raise awareness.”
In hindsight, Sandhu wishes he asked his doctor for blood tests on his first visit. He hopes his experience empowers people to advocate for themselves at the doctor.
“We should take ownership of our health,” he says. “If you feel something is off, be proactive. Follow up, ask the right questions, do the research.”
Sandhu is grappling with the “learning curve” of being in cancer treatments and accepting what he can and can’t do as a result.
“Physically all things considered, I’m feeling as good as one can,” he says. “I do feel that the last years in terms of all the ways I’ve lived my life, fitness, health, have … set me up to tackle this.”
Being diagnosed with cancer has given him a new perspective on life.
“By no means do I think I’m old. But it’s very interesting that once you get diagnosed how young you feel,” he says. “It’s an awakening that there’s so much life ahead of you. … I still have a lot to give.”
