A man who believed his exhaustion was due to a recent family wedding was shocked when his doctor told him to go straight to A&E, and he was given a shocking diagnosis.
Ricky Duggal, 32, experienced joint pain, fatigue, and persistent headaches which he initially attributed to the stress of his cousin's nuptials and the demands of his job as a dentist. However, a visit to his GP on a day off led to an urgent referral to A&E, where he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
Ricky told Leeds Live: "It was a shock but I felt they were overreacting a bit so I started to backtrack and think oh my symptoms aren't that bad. But I went to A&E where they did all the tests including a lumbar puncture for viral meningitis.
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"I'm quite a relaxed person and still thought everything would come back fine. We'd just celebrated my cousin's big wedding at the end of July 2023, and I felt a bit run down and fatigued the week after. I had had back pain before dentists often get it because of our bad posture whilst working with patients.
"I went to the physio who loosened it all up but it didn't seem to make much difference. I was also waking up with nights sweats, and I had a purple bruise on my leg. The tiredness continued and I noticed I had lost a lot of strength at the gym and couldn't manage the weights I'd lifted before. Then the headaches started. Not the usual type of headache but in my scalp at the back of my head. This was the symptom that worried me the most."
Ricky was officially diagnosed with ALL on August, 11, 2023 and was told he would need to stay in hospital for treatment to start immediately. ALL carries a significant risk of relapse, prompting doctors to continue with three additional cycles of chemotherapy. Ricky also needed regular blood and platelet transfusions to keep his red blood cells and platelets at a healthy level.
He finished the second round of chemo in November, the third in December, and he's set to start the final consolidation cycle in February. Ricky added: "I'm so grateful for being in remission since the first cycle, I hope by the summer I will just be on maintenance chemotherapy which will last for two years. Everyone else was making new year's resolutions and mine is simply to get through this treatment.
"Being positive has helped so much, and the support of my family It took me a while but I had an account for my dental work there which I didn't use very much. After it had all sunk in I felt ready to share. There's a lot of support out there, others have reached out to me who are going through the same thing. It's good for us to share our stories."
"The other thing that's helped is that I feel they caught it really early. I saw my GP within ten days of having symptoms. At that point my white cell count was 22. Normal is between 4 and 11 but leukaemia can push it as high as 600. So mine was only slight raised. I'm glad I didn't delay, and no one should ever ignore any symptoms."
