When a rash or an odd-looking spot appears on our body, we tend to instinctively brush it off as nothing. But for these people, it turned out to be a sign of a severe illness that left some of them staring the Grim Reaper right in the face. 

What you’re about to read are responses to this Quora question: “What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?”

Answers came flooding in. Some people shared the worst and most painful ways they found out they had cancer or organ infections. Others learned they were within days of death because of a bruise on their arm. 

You would want to read these stories. Enjoy scrolling through.

#1

A few weeks before my nineteenth birthday, I was sitting to the right of my mom. When I went to look at her, she pointed out that my left eye did not track with my right eye, which made it look like I had a lazy eye. The next day, after we had all laughed it off (because it did look quite goofy), my mom made an appointment with a neuro-opthalmologist. We went in on a busy Saturday and after he examined my eye, he requested that we make another appointment on a day when he would have more time to dedicate to me and the testing that would have to be done.

About two weeks later, my mother and I went to his other office and he examined my eye. He asked me if I had experienced any double-vision recently, and I realized I had. So, he explained the possible reasons for the eye (which he diagnosed as sixth cranial nerve palsy): it was an infection, or, in very rare cases, a brain tumor. He ordered a chest x-ray, blood work, and a head MRI.

The blood work and chest x-ray went well and nothing was found. Going into my MRI, my mother was optimistic, but I just had a feeling that the diagnosis was going to be bigger than a little infection. After the MRI, my mother and I got lunch and were high in spirits. When we returned home, I got to work on my classes (they were online- thanks, 2020). A few hours later, my mother ran into my room, very upset, and told me to come to the phone.

My doctor was on the other end. He told me that I had a mass in my brain that was pressing against my sixth cranial nerve. He suggested that it was a very rare form of bone cancer in my brain called chordoma that had grown on my skull base, in the middle of my head. I was diagnosed two days after my nineteenth birthday.

Since then, my diagnosis was confirmed and I had surgery to remove the tumor. I had many complications, like infections and brain fluid leaks, but I made it out. There was about 5–10% of the tumor left, so I underwent proton radiation therapy to kill the rest of the cancer. In a few weeks, I will have been in partial remission for a year 🙂 I also had eye surgery about ten months ago to correct my eye, which was stuck looking inward since my first surgery. Since then, I’ve been dealing with a lot of other issues because of my tumor and treatment, like chronic nerve damage/pain, Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, but I have a wonderful team of doctors who have provided me with great treatments.

I was a freshman in college when I was diagnosed, and now I’m going to be a junior. I’m studying psychology and music, and I participate in my college’s choirs, theatre productions, and student life team. In the future, I’m hoping to get my Master’s degree in mental health counseling and work as a therapist for adolescents and young adults with disabilities, rare disease, and cancer. I would also love to perform professionally in my city’s symphony orchestra/choir and maybe even audition for America’s Got Talent.

I thank the Lord for all that he has done for me

Image credits: Olivia DeJong

#2

Not me, but my boyfriend. He had a tummy ache and felt sick, he vomited a couple times and went to lay down. He slept for about an hour and woke up feeling worse. He decided to go to the hospital. He figured it was maybe an ulcer or something and they would give him a prescription and send him home. They did a CT scan and some blood work. Turns out he had acute pancreatitis. He was in a coma for 43 days. He had a breathing tube and was on life support. The doctors said that he was going to die. Then they put in two abdominal drains and did a tracheostomy (put a hole in his throat with a tube so the machine could help him breathe). He woke up and had no idea what had happened. He went to the emergency on Sept 30th and woke up in the icu on November 12th. He was in the hospital in another unit till November 20th. He didn’t die, but it was very close. He is now recovering at home, he still has the abdominal drains and is now an insulin dependent diabetic and has to take enzymes to help him digest food. Everyone said he wouldn’t make it, but I didn’t give up on him and sat at the hospital with him everyday, all day. He says that if it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have made it. I’m so grateful to have him home. This is a picture of us that he took when he woke up. He is the love of my life, we have 4 kids together and I would have been lost without him

*edit* Thank you for all the upvotes and comments ❤. He is doing much better, he still has the drains and will for quite a while. Our kids are super happy to have their dad back ?

Wow, thanks for all the upvotes, shares and comments. Just an update, the drains are gone and he is doing great!! He is (thankfully) still sober and going strong. He is back in school and his classes are going well. I have also decided to take the advice of one of his icu nurses and go back to school. So I am waiting for my first semester to start to become an RN (nurse) lol. His nurse told me that I should become a nurse, so thats what I’m going to do. I feel most satisfied when I’m helping someone else, so I think it will be a good fit. Also I will be better able to help him if I’m trained. Today, studying hard for school. Looking great. His one cyst is starting to get bigger again, does anyone know of this happening? When a cyst can be drained and then fill up again?

Image credits: Jennifer Softley

#3

My 12 year old daughter started her period when she was 11. Everything seemed normal and after about 5 months they stopped and I didn’t really think anything of it. 6 months later she had a common chest cold so i took her to the doctor for some antibiotics. We were seen by a nurse practitioner that was very thorough and asked us a lot of questions. The one question she asked us probably saved my daughters life. She asked about her period. After I told her she recommended us to get some bloodwork done that that includes hormones. So we did and she was given some antibiotics for her cold and we went home. 2 days later i get a phone call from her doctor who wanted us to come in asap. My daughters hormones were way off. She had a testosterone level the same as a 25 yr old man and hardly any oestrogen. She ordered a bunch of tests that include an MRI of her brain. An ultrasound of her uterus and sent us to a specialist for hormones. Tests came back and she was riddled with ovarian cysts , a tumour in her rectum and tumour near her pituitary gland just behind her eyes. Everything turned out great. She is now 28yrs old and her hormones are back to normal and the ovarian cysts went away as soon as she started her periods again. She had to have brain surgery to remove the tumour behind her eyes and the tumour in her rectum just disappeared.

Image credits: Stephanie Wold

#4

It all started after I scratched myself on a piece of metal on my moms door. The scratch wasn’t deep… I never even bled from it.

A red lump came up, which looked and itched like a mosquito bite. Over the course of 3 weeks, it evolved into a fleshy bump with a yellow center. I thought it was a boil and tried to pinch it but there was no pus in it.

I knew after 3 weeks there was something wrong so I made an appointment with a dermatologist to have it biopsied. It turns out I had squamous cell skin cancer. It came up that quickly from a small scratch.

Image credits: Ida Kern

#5

Well I started feeling a little tired and noticed a rather large bruise on my right forearm. I couldn’t remember doing anything to get it, but there it was. So about a week later my husband tells me I’m getting forgetful and sends me to my doctor. My GP sends me to a Neurologist, my Neurologist sends me to an Oncologist, my Oncologist sends me to Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto. (I had lost consciousness in the Oncologist’s office, so I have no memory of my trip from Monterey, Ca to Palo Alto).

My Stanford Hematologist tells me (six months later) that I had arrived about two days from death. I had Acute Leukemia and my blood was 78% blasts (underdeveloped Red and White Blood Cells, and Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Platelets).

That was the last bruise I’ll ever ignore!

Image credits: Trisha Bullock

#6

In January of 2019 I woke up on a Saturday with a pain under my ribs/ kind of like heartburn. I have awful anxiety and thought it was a panic attack so I took half a Valium and went to my daughters basketball game. After the game the pain hadn’t gone away, so I took the other half of Valium and decided I needed to sleep off the panic attack.

By Monday night the pain still hadn’t gone away so I went to an urgent care after work. They told me it could be a gallbladder attack but didn’t think so because I was fine – I mean besides the pain I was fine. I wasn’t in horrific pain, probably a 4 on a scale of 10. But they said since I’ve had this pain for 3 days I should have an ultrasound of my gallbladder to make sure everything was ok in there. They didn’t seem too concerned at all. So I got in for the ultrasound on Wednesday, I drove myself, the pain still there but again, not awful, just annoying at this point. It was constant but got worse after I ate anything.

Thursday the urgent care called to tell me everything on my ultrasound was normal except for a few gallstones but there weren’t any blockages. I told them I still had pain and they said I should probably go to the ER to be seen. I was at work and didn’t want to leave early so I told my coworkers and boss what the doctor had said and was trying to decide if I was going to go to the ER when I got off work. They all decided I had to go NOW. I was so upset. I was just going to sit in the ER for 4 hours and pay a $600 copay with insurance to be told I had a few gallstones and to go home.

well, I went. And the doctors looked at me, had another ultrasound done, and I hear the ultrasound tech tell the doctor “I don’t know what they’re talking about, she doesn’t have any stones.” The doctor looked at the screen and started pointing everywhere, “stone, stone, huge stone, all of that that looks like sand… stones.”

They told me I needed to stay overnight and have surgery the next morning and I was so upset because my 5 kids were at home with my husband. The next morning came and I had no pain. The doctor said since he had seen all the stones and already had me scheduled for surgery that morning I should just get it done before it caused problems again, and that it’s an in and out procedure, takes about 45 minutes and I’d go home right after with pain only for a few days while I healed. Ok, sure. No big deal.

I wake up 4 hours later with 3 small incisions, a drain tube coming out of my abdomen and my husband sitting in a hospital room saying “you just HAD to be difficult, didn’t you?”

Well, overnight in the hospital the night before my surgery, my gallbladder had ruptured. The surgeon said he had never seen a gallbladder as bad as mine. It was like I was an obese 60 year old man, eating grease for every meal and my gallbladder had been rotting inside me for YEARS, filled with HUNDREDS of stones. They said they usually check for the 3 Fs when it comes to gallbladder issues – Fat: Overweight, which I really wasn’t, but I could stand to lose a few pounds. Fertile: which I was, I had had 5 babies back to back. And Forty: over 40 years old – I had just turned 25… lol So I only met 1 of the usual criteria for gallbladder issues.

I ended up having to be in the hospital for 9 days, with a bile leak from leaving the branch to where my gallbladder was without a clip. The surgeon couldn’t get to it with all the inflammation from the rupture.

Image credits: Taylor Olds

#7

Just over 20 years ago, I had cut my thumb and it wasn’t healing. It needed a couple of stitches — no big deal. My normal doctor was away and I had a locum.

As an afterthought, I asked for a prescription for the pill. I only took it for regularity as I had been told I couldn’t have kids due to severe endometritis.

The doctor wanted to do a pregnancy test first as I was a few days late. I told him that was normal for my body (even on the pill), but he insisted.

As we waited for the result, he started writing out the prescription. Suddenly he looked at the test, looked at me and said, ‘Congratulations! You’re pregnant!’

My life was complicated back then and to say it was a shock was an understatement. I saw stars and walked out in a daze.

My beautiful golden haired girl entered the world 9 months later (the photo is of her and her beautiful partner) and changed my life. She is the best thing that ever happened to me. We are best friends and talk nearly every day.

She taught me unconditional love and loyalty and has the purest heart of anyone I know.

To say I love my daughter is an understatement.

Image credits: Tan Turner

#8

I was 15 at the time and had noticed a lump on the side of my neck. The truth was I was 15 and thought that it was just a lump. That it was nothing. Obviously I went to the doctors who said that I was fine, I kept going back until I was referred to a local hospital where at this point another lump had grown on my neck, much larger and much more painful.

I after a long time was given a biopsy and an MRI scan to find out I needed to be referred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

this is where I found out that I had a stage 3 cancer called nasopharyngeal carcinoma. A large tumour starting in my nose moving to my neck all the way to the top of my spine. This one small lump which had grown to two over this period wasn’t just a lump. It was really serious. I started chemotherapy the next day because they just couldn’t wait any longer. my doctor said if it’d taken me another month to get diagnosed I would have been stage 4 terminal and I would have died.

Image credits: Emily Byrne

#9

I have a small raised red dot on my leg. Thought nothing of it. Thought it was a spot or a cut. It turns out it’s a form of skin cancer. So if you get this and it grows see your doctor

Image credits: Sophia Lillie

#10

Not me, but my husband. In mid-March 2012, he started waking each morning with pain in his lower right abdomen. It would last about 5 minutes, then be gone for the rest of the day. When this had occurred every morning for about 10 days, I told him he needed to get to his doctor to find out what was going on. He hesitated until I reminded him that he still had his appendix, had a 90 minute (each way) commute to work on busy Interstate 95 into Washington DC. I told him that if it was his appendix, then it could rupture during rush hour traffic, not just putting him in danger, but also the many other commuters surrounding him. He finally agreed, and made an appointment for that afternoon. So he went in to his doctor, who immediately sent him across the street to the hospital for a CT scan. He called to let me know, and I drove there to be with him while he awaited the results. We sat there, me telling him that appendix surgery isn’t a big deal, and he would only be out of work a few days. Friends on Facebook were sending their support, and absolutely none of us were very concerned. We were waiting about an hour, until finally a Physician’s Assistant entered the room, with the films in hand. She stood briefly silent, and finally spoke: “You have stage 4 kidney cancer. Call Dr. ____ in the morning to make an appointment to discuss treatment.” With that, she turned & walked out.

Less than 3 months later, my 59 year old husband, whom I had loved since I was 16, died at home, surrounded by family. We had been together 41 years, and married for 39.

UPDATE 1/18/21: An edit was suggested to my answer. While I appreciate the thought, I find it unnecessary. I feel that my original answer got my message across. I did not submit in an effort to win a Pulitzer Prize… I submitted an answer about about what was, by far, the most traumatic event to my life. I myself am chronically ill and disabled, and on top of that I recently moved to a new house… all in the middle of a global pandemic, meaning I have no help. So I’m just a bit busy with my life, and grammatical errors are, trust me, the last thing on my mind.

Image credits: Barbara Domer-Hostetler

#11

I was going to the VA for sinus infections and headaches. With the recent passing of the PACT ACT I figured I could potentially get a 30% disability rating or about a $300 monthly check. They sent me for a CT scan. I was there late on a Friday. They wouldn’t let me leave without talking too a doctor. Well all the doctors had left already. The nures walked me out. She told me schedule a mri. Not to drop everything but schedule it soon. A few weeks later I had an mri. The VA called me a week later and told me they were referring me to a neurosurgeon. I asked what for. They said I had a bone lesion. A few weeks later I went to see the neurosurgeon. I had researched bone lesions and figured he would tell me to have an mri every 6 months to keep an eye on it. Didn’t have my wife come as it was going to be a nothing appointment. I had scheduled to go checkout a car forsale afterwards.

the neurosurgeon tells me I have to have surgery. I ask why. He said to remove the tumor. I am confused, how is this a brain tumor? I ask to see pictures of what he is talking about. Here is what he showed me. The tumor had eaten away my skull.

Well, walking out of the hospital without losing it was the 2nd most difficult thing I have ever done. The most difficult was calling my wife and telling her. We scheduled my surgery for 3 weeks later.

The VA denied my benefits for sinus issues so no money. But they did pay for the whole surgery, $150k.

it has a happy ending. All good and playing volleyball and golf again. I am one lucky sob. I never had any symptoms and would have had no idea until it was too late. It was benign.

Image credits: Bob Dragolic

#12

I was probably 7–8 years old.

One pretty morning, I developed severe stomachache but my mother thought, she’s just blabbering excuses to not go to school. However, I kept my statement sharp that this is something serious.

She took me to the Military hospital and as usual I was put under various blood tests and X rays.

There, back at home, some mosquitoes started troubling my father, so he opened the drawer to find the old mosquito solution of that time, the tikki or mat which was kept on light bulbs.

Doctors didn’t find something significant, and my mother scolded me pretty badly for Missing the school.

But, when we reached back home, my father showed us something uncertain.

2–3 spitted out, chewed mosquito mats. It was me.

I chewed them last evening without knowing that they are not a snack but a mosquito killer.

Later on, when this thing was informed to the Doctors, they immediately called me back.

I was admitted in a Hospital for a week where my whole body was put under processes of detoxification.

Finally, I made it alive.

Image credits: Tiksha Rohilla

#13

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EASILY DISGUSTED

I had a small nick on my toe. It got a little infected, I asked the doc about it while there and he put a Band-Aid on it. Then a few weeks later it was almost completely healed, but taking a long time. I was on vacation at the beach in Alabama on the Gulf Coast, and on my way home my foot was hurting. Two days later my whole toe was as red as a fire engine — I went back to the doctor who sent me to the hospital where they scraped layers and layers of my toe off with something that looked like a cheese grater. After an X-ray and inspection, they scheduled an amputation and took off most of my big toe. Apparently that small cut on my toe had had picked up a rapidly moving flesh-eating bacteria from the Gulf. It had dissolved the tip of my toe bones from the inside out, and if they had not chopped it when they did, it probably would have taken the rest of my foot within a week or two.

It honestly started as just a tiny slice that looked like a paper cut, so I don’t have a photo of that… here is the photo progression over the last three days I had two big toes, haha! The first one is the day I went to the hospital. The second one is after they scraped it to inspect the damage.

UPDATE… 09/15/2021…

Amazingly, I am going to add a second answer to my answer… damn that sounds bad. I just got out of the hospital last week. The prior answer was from just over 2 years ago. This time I had a small blister on my other foot which went off and on healing and not for several months until it finally did heal completely in July 2021… until mid August when it magically appeared again. At this point it had been cleared by several doctors and a wound care specialist. Anyhoo, within days I felt absolutely horrible. My leg was a little swollen and I had crazy amounts of chest pressure and pain. It quickly became a situation that I was having difficulty breathing, so I reluctantly went to the hospital thinking I might have Covid. They asked what my issue was, I replied very much jokingly, “Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up, haha!”

Long story short, we never made it past this small blister on my foot. Turns out I had a case of gaseous gangrene that had been brewing unnoticed for well over 2 weeks. They quickly ran some tests and got me into surgery by the next day where they removed 2 of my toes and part of my foot. The infection had basically eaten away all of the bone, muscle, and tissue and was working its way up my leg, causing the breathing problems as well. If you look it up, this sort of infection spreads rapidly and left untreated is generally fatal within 48 hours… again, I was going on like 14 days…

They ended up essentially having to carve out my foot nearly 3″ deep. I have never heard of a wound vac before, but they left the amputation open where I have a vacuum hooked up to it for the next 4–6 weeks while my body regrows and fills in the cavity. This is one of the craziest things I have ever seen on a living human literally still up and walking around… and it is ME! Haha! Check out these photos. The first two are the day before and when I went into the hospital. The next is my X-ray showing the void in my foot created by the infection, the next several are how it is coming along. You can see that vacuum tube is almost unnoticeable. The last is literally right now as I type this, you can see my old toe chop from the first story. The black on the left of my foot is just padding for the tubing, so no worries, things are looking great.

Thanks! for all the upvotes and comments! I really hope I do not have to add a third story in the future… lol.

Image credits: Andy Sprich

#14

I found a little hard lump under my left ear. It was pandemic time and there were radio and TV ads telling people that they must see their doctor if they found a lump (otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone).

So, I rang for a phone appointment, expecting to be told it was a cyst or something. Nope. I was called straight down to the surgery (thank goodness I knew that particular GP very well and trusted him).

The next week or so was a bit of a blur: multiple biopsies and ultrasounds and what have you. Then a Covid test and an operation!! It was the unseemly haste that was most terrifying. Darned near cut my ear off!! But I’m ok now – except for some quite impressive scarring. That blue/green stripe under my ear that goes under my chin – that’s bleeding under the skin acting under the force of gravity, not just a grubby neck!

Update from today. Scarring isn’t too bad, really. Clever people, those surgeons. Most of the scar that’s actually on my face is hidden in the creases around my ear. I am so grateful to the NHS!!

Oh, and that tube? That’s one of my hearing aids. Deaf as a bloody post, I am!

Image credits: Rebecca Aryal

#15

Not me, but my sister.

On August 2020, my sister got 2–3 painless lumps in her neck and near upper stomach.

She was working in a different city, so she could not come to her home in lockdown. She came to her home in September. She went to the doctor and did some blood tests. The doctor confirmed it was nothing serious and it was just an accumulation of fats due to long working hours, no exercise and no proper diet.

She had to return to office location by next week. After some days her right leg started paining a little. She thought of taking second opinion and returned to her home the next weekend. She consulted another doctor, but he too told her it was nothing but just accumulation of fats due to no exercise and prescribed some painkillers for leg pain. She took painkillers and again left for her office location the next morning.

By end of October, she was not able to lift her right leg and she had lost around 20 kgs. She was also dieting a lot as the previous doctors had told the lumps were due to her weight and no exercise so she blamed weight loss on dieting. Her mother went to visit her because of her leg. She was not even able to walk by herself. Finally she decided to consult another doctor. This doctor also told the same thing. But he also told if she wanted to remove those lumps, it can be operated and removed. But there will not be any health issues if it is not operated and those lumps are still there.

As she wanted to marry soon, she decided to go for surgery to look good. The surgery was scheduled. But before that, the doctor told to get MRI of brain and leg to know the root cause of numbness in her legs. He also told to do test for tuberculosis and COVID-19 before admitting her. Her COVID-19 test was negative but tuberculosis test came positive and MRI of brain showed she had tuberculosis in her brain. The doctor prescribed medicines for tuberculosis and operated on the lumps. He sent the lumps which were removed from her body to biopsy for surety. The biopsy report came as cancer positive.

My sister had breast cancer which had spread to her brain. Due to damage in brain from cancer, the brain was not able to send signals to her leg, which is why her leg was not responding. The doctor had planned 5 cycles of chemotherapy and radiation. After 1st cycle her condition worsened drastically.

On 6th January, 2021, she got urinary tract infection which turned to be very critical. She had breathing problems later so was put on ventilator on 9th January.

Her soul left her body on 10th January, 2021 as her heart stopped beating.

Please don’t ever ignore any unusual signs in your body. Consult a doctor if you feel something is not right. If your gut feeling says the doctor isn’t giving proper advice, take a second opinion on it. Nothing is more valuable than your life.

Image credits: Anonymous

#16

Slight discomfort in the lower right side of my torso.

I remember driving to work one day and I noticed a strange sensation, a twinge in the right side of my abdomen, when I’d shift my right foot from my accelerator to my brake. I made a mental note, but decided there wasn’t any reason to do anything about it at the time.

One week later and I was in noticeable pain. I decided to wait another week to see the doctor as I was doing a lot of exercise at the time, including boxing, which could have explained the symptom. The doctor agreed with my decision to come after 2 weeks of pain, and initially trialed me on Irritable Bowel medication, which was a common cause for the symptoms I had. This did nothing.

Two weeks later the doctor did a stool test for parasites. A parasite was identified and we treated it aggressively with antibiotics. This also did nothing.

5 weeks after my initial doctor’s visit I was in constant pain, sometimes causing me to double over, I was also strangely suffering from loose stool and constipation, I’d been very tired but I’d put that down to starting full-time work and a lack of sleep.

The doctor saw me again, this time he felt something was wrong during the physical exam of my abdomen. He said he wanted me to get a scan but couldn’t justify it without me getting some blood tests for food allergies first. It was a Tuesday. That afternoon I got my blood tested.

On Wednesday morning my results came back, no allergies detected. Wednesday afternoon I went in for the CT scan. In the 15 minutes it took me to drive home from the scan, the radiologist had called me 3 times. They’d found something. I drove back to the Imaging facility and collected my scans and went straight on to my doctor. My doctor explained I had an ileocolic intussusception – my bowel had telescoped into itself. There was a risk of bowel obstruction, and a bowel obstruction could lead to death if not urgently treated.

From Wednesday afternoon I was on a liquid diet. If I started vomiting I was to go straight to the hospital for emergency surgery. Otherwise, my surgery was booked for the Friday.

The surgery on Friday went off without a hitch. The issue had been rectified, I was no longer in pain. I just had to focus on healing.

The following Tuesday my surgeon came in to see me. Whilst the intussusception had been fixed there was something that had caused it, something worse. So, on that Tuesday morning, I was diagnosed with Stage III Bowel Cancer.

Image credits: Jack Valentine

#17

End of May 2018, I was experiencing really bad back pain. I have been experiencing back pain since around the age of 14/15 but this was different. I decided to make a Drs appointment, my husband knew something serious was wrong because unless pregnant, I never went to the Dr.

I was told that I had a pulled muscle. I accepted that as that. A week later and it hadn’t eased up, it was getting worse. My Dr told me I probably pinched a nerve or something along with the pulled muscle and prescribed me medication. A week and a half later, it was worse and I was now having upper right quadrant pain. It was a Friday and my Dr said “I don’t know what to do for a woman with upper right quadrant pain on a Friday. Go for some blood work and if you decide, go to the ER.”

I went and got blood taken and went home. I was miserable. My husband worked mid shift and fell asleep on the couch because we had gone to my appointment right after he got home at 8:30am. I was making my kids lunch and out of nowhere, threw up in my sink from the pain. I had doubled over and couldn’t straighten back out. I crawled to the couch and woke my husband up. I needed to go to the ER, something is seriously wrong.

We got to the ER and waited about 30 minutes before being taken back. It took forever to get any tests started. I had blood work and peed in a cup. I knew what they would tell me before I did any of that. After being there several hours, I finally got taken back for an Ultrasound. I left my husband and 2 kids back in the room and was wheeled down. The nice man was as patient as could be. It hurt to move and hold my breath; which I had to several times. When he got to my gallbladder, he let out an audible gasp. I asked what was wrong and his words were “ma’am, how are you not screaming in pain? I have Army Rangers in here half this bad acting like babies. You’re going to need your gallbladder removed.” I was wheeled back to my room and told I’d be getting an IV put in. It took 2 guys to finally get an uncomfortable stick in the side of my wrist. They blew out a few veins. The photos I’m going to share are several days after my surgery. I finally got hooked up to fluids and pain meds. Then the ER Dr arrives saying that I have a fairly decent infection in my blood so I’ll be given another IV bag and they are trying to find somewhere to send me because I need to be under medical care and my gallbladder needs to be taken out soon but their surgeon for that at the base hospital isn’t here right now. About an hour later, they tell me I’m going Alaska Regional via Ambulance and my husband and kids could meet me there.

Got to ARs ER and admitted. They redid my IV site, and retook my information because what JBER had sent was a mess. Apparently they told AR that I was pregnant (this shocked me because I knew for certain that I wasn’t). Every one there was amazing though. I’d been in the ER at JBER for like 7 hours and they knew I was tired. My husband and kids showed up just as the Surgeon did. He told me I’d get my surgery just before lunch time the next day but they wanted to let me get some sleep. They wheeled me upstairs and my family went home. That next day, I had my surgery. I had infection around my gallbladder (that was severely swollen), a stone had ripped through my bile duct, and the nurse lost count at 22 decent sized stones. I was in a lot of pain.

To date, that is my only surgery, and it was a mess. But now I’m better and so thankful for decent physicians that exist in the world and am definitely more apprehensive when it comes to military Drs, I’d never received great care prior to that but the mess with my gallbladder takes the cake for me.

Image credits: Trish Marshall

#18

When I moved into college, I had many troubles managing my time.

I had to conciliate several fatiguing actives such as being a college swimmer, working as a part-time model, keeping up with my studies, and cleaning the apartment.

I always felt exhausted, out of breath and energy. When faints became more and more frequent, my flatmates begged me to book a medical checkup.

I thought there was no point in doing it; I didn’t need a doctor to figure out that my body couldn’t take it anymore. They would reprimand me for my inconsiderate behavior for then proceeding to prescrive more rest and some supplements.

Nevertheless, I still booked an appointment to reassure my friends.

It turned out that the cause of my tiredness was not my busy schedule, but my eating disorder. That’s when I first realized that I was truly killing myself.

When you struggle with anorexia, nearly all of the body’s vital organs and systems are adversely affected by sustained starvation and malnutrition, including hearts. In fact, I was struggling with sever cardiac complications. I used to attribute my low heart rate to an “athletic heart”, but the truth was that I was in a life-threatening situation where my heart could have stopped at any time.

As a patient with anorexia nervosa, severe bradycardia (heart rate less than 40 bpm) and hypotension, I was hospitalized for monitoring and stabilization. A lot of other symptoms, which I had previously decided to ignore, showed up – like the absence of menstruation, abdominal pain, and thin hair that breaks.

For over a year, my life changed drastically; I entered an eating disorder treatment program for physical and psychological support, and I was bumped off the college swimming team. I still had my modeling job, but I soon realized it was consuming, detrimental, and there was no point in doing something that was making me sick and unhappy. I silently adjusted to the way my body was changing from my lightest to my heaviest weight. But the most important thing is that I started a self-improvement journey where I’m slowly learning how to love and appreciate my body for the way it is every single day.

I’m now 21. I graduated from college, I’m working as a business translator while studying for a master’s degree, and I’m planning my future with my sweet half. I was also able to get back to the swimming team and accomplish some of my goals as a college athlete before graduating and moving once again to another place.

I’d love to tell you that my eating disorder is just an old story, but the ugly truth is that it’s still here and probably never going to leave. There are ups and downs. The difference is that now I’m very open about it; I don’t feel ashamed to ask for help before bottoming out. Asking for help doesn’t make me weak, it makes me human. We all have inner demons to fight with, and anorexia happens to be mine.

Image credits: Kiara Bay

#19

When I was a little boy of about 10 years old, I told my mother that I thought I needed a new prescription for my glasses. I told her I was having difficulty seeing the blackboard in class at school. This was 1963 and I was living with my family in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. So my mother thinking it was going to be a routine check up took me to the local ophthalmologist who always checked my vision.

At that point I thought that I was simply going to walk out with a new prescription and life would go on. My ophthalmologist was a wonderful old gentleman who was a very careful and very thoughtful doctor. He was the kind of person with whom you could really trust and feel comfortable. Even now I can vividly picture him and the examination room, as that intensely bright light, that has occurred hundreds of times throughout my life, came close to my dialated eyes. After examining my eyes he turned to me, my mother was in the waiting room, and said that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me I had a detached retina and that I needed surgery immediately! Ironically, what he told me next was actually more impactful than being told that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me that I would never ever be able to play football again. When I heard that, I bolted out of the exam room, ran through the waiting room out the front door and sat down on the sidewalk outside his office weeping. My mother shocked at my actions thought what in the world is going on? After collecting me from outside she immediately went to the doctor and he told her that I needed to go to the medical college in Charleston South Carolina and have emergency surgery. That day we got in the car and drove over 100 miles to Charleston to the medical college and arrived at the department where the top eye surgeons examined me. They told my parents that I was not going blind in just one eye, I was going blind in both eyes. They then informed us that they were not capable of doing the surgery because of the extent of the retinal damage. They recommended that we travel to Johns Hopkins in Maryland, the only place at that time capable of performing the kind of surgery I needed. Suffice it to say the head of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins took my case and did the surgery. I found out later that the members of the Presbyterian church that my family attended also prayed all that day for a successful surgery. 10 hours later the surgery was over and was a huge success. Ever since I have thanked God not only for my original doctor who detected my problem but also for all of the amazing medical professionals who were instrumental in my treatment.

One final caveat… the wonderful doctor who first discovered my condition knew that I had to have surgery on both eyes , apparently as I found out later he didn’t have the heart to tell me that my condition was so dire.

Image credits: Joe W Johnston

#20

In 2013, I was eating a burger when suddenly after taking a bite, I could no longer open my mouth. I was terrified and had no idea why this just happened. I’ve dealt with TMJ for many years and assumed it had to be just that, & maybe a warm compress & massaging my jaw would unlock my mouth. Nothing seemed to work, and I could only fit about the size of my pinky in my mouth. I couldn’t even fit a spoon in. So I made an appointment with an oral surgeon to figure out what was going on. He did a physical exam, and knew right away it must be an issue with the disc in my jaw joint. He scheduled an urgent surgery to get it put back in, but ordered an MRI to go over just to be certain.

The morning of surgery, he met with me briefly before it was time to go under. He said, “ we got your results back from the mri, and there are two things I need to go over with you.” He then proceeded to tell me those two things.

1st, they confirmed the disc in my jaw slipped out and did not go back in when I took that bite out of my burger. So surgery was definitely needed to correct the issue.

2nd, “I need you to see a neurologist. We found a mass in your brain. I’m not a medical doctor & I cant diagnose this for you. Take a copy of your MRI to get this checked out as soon as possible.”

In that moment, which is all I really had to process what he said, my entire world just stopped. This was the most unexpected and terrifying news to receive just minutes before I was to go under for jaw surgery. I will never forget the way I felt in that moment.

It turned out to be a large cyst wedged in between the fossas of my left temporal lobe in my brain. Something my doctors closely monitor but are unable to remove at the moment. Whenever I think about it, it still gets me feeling anxious, especially since it’s still there and growing little by little each year.

EDIT:

Wow! I did not expect my story to get as much attention as it has! I am truly grateful for the kindness and dialogue.

I just wanted to throw some more info here since I didn’t go into much detail:

*The Dr I saw for my surgery was a dental surgeon (DDS) so he was unable to diagnose me regarding the mass.

*A little fun fact: since my jaw was almost shut, I had to remain awake during my surgery. The doctors were unable to place a breathing tube down my throat, so that was the only option. I was given some medication but remember most of it. I ALSO had 4 wisdom teeth extracted right after they fixed my jaw. So I had a 2 in 1 surgery!

*The neurologists that diagnosed me let me know that it was too risky to surgically remove due to the location of the cyst. It’s wedged in between the fossas of my brain & not on the surface. They said it would cause brain damage to go in and extract it. So instead they feel more comfortable monitoring it for growth. The only way they would actually perform surgery is if it ruptures, which would cause damage on its own. (The scariest part of this whole thing).

So that’s kind of where I’m at right now. It really is terrifying. If it was just a benign tumor, I think I would feel better about it making a home up there, but since it’s a cyst, it has the possibility of rupturing. That’s the most difficult part for me. Optimism has gotten me this far and through it all, so that’s the wave I’ll continue to ride. Thank you all again for your kind words & for engaging with my post!

Image credits: Sophia Parveen

#21

I used to bowl on a bowling league. After doing this for a few years, my left thigh started hurting about 2 inches above the knee. It only hurt after bowling 2 of the 3 games. It kept getting worse land worse. I finally went to a dr when it was hurting after only 1/2 a game. They thought maybe it was a stress fracture in my femur. X-Ray showed nothing. They said take it easy for 6 weeks and see if it heals. 6 weeks later, it was hurting so bad I couldn’t walk more than 10 min. So they ordered an MRI. That also showed nothing. The orthopedic dr said maybe it’s a hairline fracture that isn’t showing up on an X-Ray. He ordered a bone scan. For those that don’t know what a bone scan is, it’s when they starve you of sugars for a day or so, then inject radio activated sugar into you. They wait 30 min then scan your whole body. Areas that have damaged bone, will collect the particles and it shows up on the bone scan. Well there was a quarter sized circle on my thigh right where the pain was plus 2 cracked ribs from a skateboard accident a few weeks earlier. The blob wasn’t damaged bone. It was above the bone in the muscle. They said tumors show on the bone scan too. So now they knew there was a mass, but what kind? They did a biopsy and it was inconclusive. The dr said it usually means it’s not cancer if it’s inconclusive. He then said it’s better to leave it in and see if it gets better. He said the rehab would be tough because he’d have to go through the muscle to get it out. I told him it’s progressively getting worse. Let’s just remove it and I’ll deal with the rehab. He agreed and took it out. The same day of the surgery while I was in recovery he came to my room and apologized up and down for trying to talk me out of removing it and he’ll never suggest that to anyone ever again. It turned out to be Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer. Had he left it alone, it could have gotten much worse. Some chemo and radiation later, I’m 9 years cancer free.

Update: well last September I fell through the ceiling in my kitchen, landing on my back. I was in the attic changing a fuse on the AC. I had just buttoned it back up, and it was finally working. I turned around and started back to the attic ladder, and my left foot slipped off the beam. I cracked 3 vertebrae and my skull. It could have been way worse. After getting all the CT, MRI, X-Ray, they determined that I was OK. About a month after I started developing a slight studder. I went to check and see if maybe they missed something in all the scans, so I got all new scans a week ago. This time they found something, but it’s unrelated to the fall. They ran me through every cancer screening known to man being a cancer survivor. They found a mass in my skull about the size of a grape. It’s in the skull behind my left eardrum. They said it’s close to the area of the brain that controls speech, hearing, and maybe short term memory. If it gets big enough it can throw off my equilibrium. Now I’m waiting again for yet another MRI of my brain to get a better look and see what they can do about it. They said that bloodwork and spinal fluid show no cancer cells, but that’s not 100% that it’s benign. They said it is accessible for surgery, but they may want to do radiation first to see if they can shrink it. They won’t do anything before the next MRI is done though. So please keep me in your prayers and I’ll post updates.

Image credits: Kevin McCarthy

#22

My daughter who had been living with us for four years had a uti that wasnt responding to the antibiotics she was taking. She was having some back pain and feeling a little sick to her stomach. She decided to get it checked out to see if she had a kidney stone. After they did xrays and scans they found a huge cancerous mass on her kidney. The cancer had also spread to her lung, liver, spine, bladder, and uterus. She never left the hospital and died exactly 2 week later. We never had a clue. She was feeling fine until about 2 weeks before going into the hospital. We were sure it was a stone. That was in Oct. The door to her room is still closed and I have not been in there at all. I miss her terribly.

Image credits: Billie Anderson

#23

I was out of town and had stopped to go to the bathroom. As I relieved myself, a blood clot the size of a cigarette butt came out in my stream. I had been taking some diet pills and assumed that I was dehydrated and just needed to drink more fluids. The next evening it happened again.

I went to the ER where they performed a CT scan. The doctor came in and said it could just be an infection but that I needed to see my GP the first thing Monday morning. He gave me a copy of the scan for him to see.

Monday morning came and I went to see my GP and close friend. He took the CD of the scan, looked at it, and came back obviously stunned.

“You have a tumor the size of a tennis ball in your bladder and I’m 98% sure it’s cancer.”

By Wednesday I was in surgery. A week later I was told I had Stage 4 cancer that was in my bladder, prostate, and urethra. I needed to start chemo within two weeks. I would also lose all of these body parts by the end of the year and pee into a bag for the rest of my life. Oh, and I needed to get my affairs in order. It was bad.

I never had any pain or other symptoms until that clot. Cancer is a sneaky son-of-a-bitch.

The good news is that I beat the odds and I am cancer free after 5 years. Prayer works.

Edit: some have wondered why the first doctor didn’t tell me about the tumor that my GP saw two days later. Well, here is the rest of the story.

When we we walking out the door of the ER, we passed the attending nurse who said, “We are praying for you.” At the time I thought it was a strange remark to say to someone with an infection, especially one that could wait a few days to be treated.

It was only later that I realized that the ER doctor probably didn’t want to scare the crap out of me since I wouldn’t be seeing my GP until Monday morning. He did insist in very strong terms that I promise to see him immediately that morning which I did.

So, there wouldn’t have been anything accomplished by telling me then that I had a large tumor in my bladder or that he suspected I had cancer. He was simply being humane to a person he knew was probably in serious trouble and I appreciated his caring later on.

Image credits: Rick Wilson

#24

My Dad was having headaches. He thought he needed a new prescription for his glasses. But after a particularly nasty headache hit him like lightening and literally floored him, I took him to the ER. Two shots of Demerol later and Dad was still in agony. The ER doc asked me how long my Dad had been an addict and I ripped him a new one. My Dad never did drugs. The doc ordered a CT scan just to shut me up. Turned out Dad had a brain tumor. They did surgery 2 days later (they had to get the swelling down first) and gave Dad 3–6 months. He lived 6 1/2 years and lived very well. Only real side effect was he couldn’t deal with crowds or a lot of noise. He spent the time visiting everyone he loved. When he died, there was nothing left undone or unsaid.

Image credits: DeAnn Robinson

#25

It’s April 2006, I’m getting ready to go out with some friends. I live at home and my mom yells at me to put the flea collar on my cat. Roxie, my somewhat feral cat, doesn’t love affection. Honestly, she didn’t belong in the house, but at this point that’s neither here nor there;;she’s been with us for three or four years.

Anyway, I put it on her, she loses her shit and bites the palm of my hand. I bleed for a second or two, I wash it and tell my mom the cat’s collar is on.

The next day I’m at work and notice that my hand is blotchy and feels warm and “off,” which is the best way I can describe it. I call my mom who says it might be infected and that I should go to the hospital, It’s a Sunday night and I have a copay but I go to appease her.

I stopped off at home to grab dinner and then head to the ER. The ER nurse was actually a neighbor, and she asked what was going on. I show her my hand and she pulls up my long sleeve T-shirt and immediately gets me a room and an IV.

I’m sitting there confused as to what the big deal was. It turns out cats’ mouths are FILTHY and anytime they break the skin it’s a big deal and you should immediately go to a doctor.

The doctor told me, that I was within anywhere from 30–90 minutes away from the infection getting to my heart and the nurse, our friend, saw that it was at my shoulder and acted quickly. Had it gotten to my heart, an incredibly likely outcome would have been death. I was in the hospital for three days to clear out the infection.

The best part is after spending half a week in the hospital, I get home and that damn cat was sitting in the middle of my bed, and I swear she had a smirk on her face.

Image credits: Chris Grebe

#26

My husband had a dark spot growing on his forehead. It looked like a birthmark. He’d had it for years, and for as long as we’ve been together (three years). He also has an autoimmune condition that causes his skin some difficulty when he’s stressed.

So I finally made him a dermatology appointment to see what could be done to manage this ongoing skin condition. While at the appointment, he got the usual full-body scan by the doctor. The doctor paused over the dark mark on my husband’s head. He just casually mentioned that he would take a small sample of the tissue from that spot. The doc shrugged and said it was likely nothing.

It came back malignant melanoma, the most aggressive and dangerous form of skin cancer. We didn’t know if it had metastasized, spread to lymph nodes…We scheduled him to have a Slow Mohs procedure. The doc gouged his head down to the bone. Big, deep hole. It was packed with gauze and we were sent home.

I had to tend to and dress the wound. I am not a medical personnel of any kind. The sight of his gaping wound nearly made me faint. I was so nervous about this responsibility before me. I had prepared by having all the necessary bandages and accouterments I would need. I called my sister in panic, I just didn’t think I could do it. She, being a mom, was used to bandaging up deep wounds, so she walked me through what to expect and she steadied me.

I did it all, every day. I would not let him see the wound. Even though he’s a medical professional and a tough guy, he did not argue with me on this point.

We waited on pins and needles to find out if the MOHS surgeon had gotten all the cancer. Had it metastasized? Would another bigger, deeper procedure be required? The call came at 7:00 a.m. a week later. All clear. Procedure a success. No mets. OMG. ??

Under my careful, diligent ministrations (I got inured to the horror of it), the wound gradually filled itself in. He hardly has a trace of a scar there now. Amazing. His flesh just grew and filled itself in. No surgical stitches necessary.

We feel very grateful to be together this Christmas Eve. He had the surgery in September 2019. He had barely fully healed at Christmas a year ago. Then, in January we both contracted COVID-19, and were fighting for our lives. Is 2020 over yet?

Image credits: Barbara Anderson

#27

in 1974 I had this pimple on my right forearm that wouldn’t come to a head, nor would it go away. And it was tender. So after a couple of months I took it to my doctor who sent me to a dermatologist. It was an amelanotic melanoma, a melanoma with no pigment. Further examination found that it had metastacized and there was some in my lungs. IN 74, that was a death sentence. They gave me 6 months, max.

But I was 25 and otherwise healthy, so they did the hail mary pass, cut out the lobe of my lung with the most mets, and put me on a brutal chemotherapy regimen of a monthly injection of 2 grams of something they called DTIC. It’s so toxic that they usually spaced it out over five days a month. But as I said, I was young and healthy and they thought I could take it. So they gave me a five day course in one dose, every month for a year.

And once a month for a year, I’d fly back off the road to San Francisco, get poisoned, and then run for home to try and make it before the nausea began. I never did, but the nurses would give me a just-in-case garbage bag for when it hit. Then it was eight hours of agony, cramping and running at both ends. The pot pipe made it possible for me to keep breakfast down the next day as I tried to pull myself together in the face of the worst hangover on earth. And the next day, I’d be back on a plane, and back on tour. This went on for a year, but it was worth it. I beat terminal cancer, and the years since then have been the best years of my life

Image credits: Rik Elswit

#28

When I was around 15 years old I started working at a community pool where my sister worked the front desk. One day while I was wiping the counters and high touch areas down, she asked why I was “standing crooked”. Me, being a moody 15 year old grunted “I’m not” and continued to work. A little while after I went to my family dr who referred me for a spinal xray. Turned out I had scoliosis. This explained my constant soreness, pain, and mental health issues the pain was causing. I ended up having surgery at the VCH (1.5 hours from my

home) at age 17. The surgery took around 9–10 hours, but was very successful.

I spent the next couple weeks in the hospital. I made friends, relearned how to sit up, walk, goto the washroom, shower etc again; and finally made a successful trip down the flight of stairs – the “test” in order to be sent home.

The day I was supposed to leave the hospital, I received news that my incision was infected + I was to be wheeled back into surgery – this time a 4 hour one – to clean it all out and get it bandaged it up again. I spent another couple days in the hospital after this but eventually made it home.

Shortly after returning home, I fainted while attempting to take my pain medicine. I was back in the hospital (local one this time, thankfully) where they monitored me + checked my back and hardware out. Everything was eventually cleared and I was sent home once again. The recovery wasn’t quick, nor was it fun, but I had an amazing support system in my family and friends. This was easily one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life, and it’s something that is ongoing – even after surgery.

Image credits: Dayna

#29

In April of 2020 I noticed a little bump growing on my upper lip. It felt like maybe an ingrown hair from shaving at somewhat irregular times with the shutdown from the COVID situation. I picked at it with a needle as I’d done before when an ingrown happens, but couldn’t find the hair.

It kept growing and turned out to be a particularly fast growing type of wart with a nasty solid “horn” on it.

I finally got an appointment at the dermatologist and she took one look and told me she’d spray it with the liquid nitrogen and that would take care of it. After she sprayed it she asked if I had any others, since they charge the same price to do 1–15 lesions in a session.

I said well ya actually, I’ve got a big crusty old-man looking wart on my left calf. Long story short, that thing I thought was just a crusty looking old-man wart turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma type skin cancer.

Fast forward to today, I had an excision to remove the SCC, plus two other biopsies. One on my face just below my eye and the other on the web valley between two toes for a possible melanoma. 0/10 I do not recommend needles and razor blades between the toes!

Thankfully the toes spot turned out to be benign but the spot on my face is basal cell carcinoma and will require MOHS surgery sometime later this month.

Moral of the story is wear sunscreen better than I did the last 30 years!!

Image credits: Lloyd Hendricks

#30

I’ve told this story before, but …

I was away at grad school at the University of Illinois and developed a cough. I’m an allergic person, so I took antihistamines and sucked cough drops all day.

Finally, after three months, I went to Student Health. I told them I usually needed a steroid shot. They wouldn’t give me one. I left, unhappily. The cough remained, waning and waxing, through winter, spring, and summer.

Just before classes began for my second year at U. of I., went back to Student Health; they gave me cough syrup that helped a little, but left me queasy. By the end of the year (December), I went back and demanded a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia. They told me nothing was found and that I was “just a California girl who couldn’t handle Illinois winters.” Never mind that I’d had the cough for well over a year.

As time went on, I also started feeling extremely fatigued. With limited energy, I ended up prioritizing my “Intro to Psych” teaching duties over progress toward my MS/PhD.

I was feeling so bad I went home for the summer. I saw my regular doctor who gave me a steroid shot which cleared up the cough. Just before I was about to fly back for my third year, I was told that, since I wasn’t making progress in my degree, I could continue my studies but wouldn’t get the out-of-state tuition waiver, would have to pay out-of-state tuition, and had lost my teaching position.

I flew back with my mother, rented a U-Haul, packed up my apartment, and drove home. The cough recurred, but the oral and injected steroids would knock it down. The steroids were a combination of an immediate release and a long-acting type which, together, should give relief for three months.

Then, I got the cough, got the steroids, and the cough returned in less than a week. My doctor took a chest X-ray (he had one in his office). There was a mass the size of an orange in the middle of my chest. By the time I could get a CT scan (it was 1984 and the machine was moved from hospital to hospital on a semi-trailer) 10 days later, it had grown by 50%.

I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. When my oncologist requested my records — especially the X-ray — he was told that there were none. [My cynicism tells me that they reviewed the X-ray and found what they had missed and made the records “disappear.”]

One of the chemotherapy agents was prednisone, one of the steroids my doctor had been using, which is why it would get better temporarily. As fast as it was growing, the tumor responded extremely well to chemo — my whole body was affected — so after the chemo, I had five weeks of radiation. No further problems (until I developed a different, unrelated cancer in 2018).

tldr: Student Health at grad school missed my cancer, thinking it was anxiety.

Image credits: Debbi Rose

#31

When I was 35 years old, I noticed a red splotch on my right breast after I got out of the shower one morning. I didn’t give it much thought until it didn’t go away after a few days and started swelling. I went to my doctor, and she thought that I had mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic. It still didn’t go away so she prescribed a second course. One day I did an internet search for “red spot on breast” and the first thing that came up was a webpage about inflammatory breast cancer. It was very rare, but when I read the symptoms, I knew. I went back to my doctor and she sent me to a breast specialist, who immediately scheduled a biopsy. As it turned out, I had stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer, which is an extremely aggressive and fast-spreading cancer with a 45% survival rate. That was 12 years ago, and my surgery, chemo and radiation were successful. The best advice I can offer everyone is to trust your gut and advocate for yourself.

#32

It wasn’t me but my one year old. He had redness and swelling around his privates, specifically his scrotum. My ex husband and I thought he had a diaper rash so we put our cream on it and disregarded it as just that; diaper rash. It wasn’t uncommon as our son hadn’t done well with many brands of diapers and wipes. About two weeks later, still seeing the ‘rash’ and small amount of swelling in his groin made an appointment with his pediatrician. When I got there, his doctor told me to wait a moment. He left the room and apparently was making a phone call to the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, Scottish Rite and when he came back into the exam room, he told me I was to bring my son there immediately and that they already knew I was coming with him.

Turned out he had a hydrocele that was turning into a hernia and needed to be operated on. The procedure went well and I am grateful to my son’s pediatrician and all the doctors and surgeons who work at such a wonderful facility.

#33

Can’t really say small but my husband pulled a muscle at work got put on pain and anti-inflammatory meds(he’s taken them before) and one morning(April 11, 2016) he couldn’t sleep and was restless and it’s now 630am im trying to get 2 kids on the school bus and one off to work, I had asked him to go lay down till I got the kids out and I’d check his blood pressure. When I did it was 200/108(he was already on BP meds) and also complained about some chest pain. Off to the ER we went. BP came down to 180/100 and Dr ordered a chest x-ray came back all clear except for a mass just to the left of his heart and several lymph nodes inflamed in the right lung. They kept him overnight for obversation with a scheduled biopsy in 2 weeks of tge mass in his left lung. Results came back as stage 3 lung cancer. By early May after a PET scan it went to terminal stage 4 inoperable lung cancer. He underwent chemo and immunotherapy and radiation; things looked much better but sadly after about 6 months and another PET scan it spread the worst of it was in his bones. We wound up trying different chemo and things got progressively worse. He worked right up till 2 months before he passed, he never gave up until the last 2 months as the cancer went to his brain. I think he realized that this was it.? It was then I had to take the car keys away from him and hide them including mine. He drove one night as we went out to dinner a month before he passed and all I can say in the almost 30yrs of being with him I was never so scared in my life with him behind the wheel. Life forever changed for me and our 3 kids when he passed a little over 3 years ago. But we are still here and trying to continue our lives. RIP Tim

#34

In May of 2016, on a Friday, I woke up feeling kind of icky, but I put my kids on the bus and went about my day. I had noticed something weird leaking from my lower abdomen but didn’t think anything of it because I’m A big girl and tend to get boils a lot. Not from being dirty, but just from sweat and friction. So I took a shower. I went to lay down because by this time I had a headache and was super fatigued. Woke up and felt worse. Saturday was date night and I could barely hold my head up and had no appetite at all. But went about the night. Got home, pants and panties were soaked from the spot on my abdomen. Took another shower (2nd that day). My kids dad had to work the next day (Sunday) and by this time, I couldn’t get out of bed. Parents begged me to go to the ER. So I did. Turns out that I was in septic shock and about 8 hours from my body shutting down completely. My kidneys and bladder were already in the process, as I had stopped producing urine. Further tests revealed that the spot that was leaking on my abdomen was the site where a rare flesh eating virus had been eating away at. They had to cut out 5 lbs of fat/tissue from my lower abdomen and 3 days in the icu and 5 on a regular floor with LOTS of antibiotics and fluids. I don’t know how many doctors have told me that I shouldn’t have survived, but here I am. 4.5 years later. In case y’all are wondering what it was, it was necrotizing fasciitis. Scary stuff.

#35

Not me, but my Mum.

This all started in April this year. She worked full time as a personal carer in the high care section of a local old age home from 2pm to 10pm 5 days a week.

Apart from occasional complaints of feeling tired, she was by all accounts and appearances heathly. Given she was a 67.5 yo woman working a physically active full time.job, this would be expected.

In early April Mum was helping a resident into a chair and the resident dropped their weight into the chair pulling Mum with him. From then on Mum had some pain in her lower right abdomen. Given her age and what she did was supposed to be a 2 carer manoeuvre we just thought it was a strain.

The pain persisted and she eventually went her doctor who sent her for a scan. The day after the scan her doctor called and demanded she come in right away. I could see Mum was scared and worried so I went with her.

We both went in to the doctor’s office and on the 28th of April 2020 Mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

About 3 weeks later, during a short stint in hospital because of an increase in pain, Mum’s oncologist came to us and said the cancer was eating her liver and she had 2 weeks. She’d only seen her oncologist once prior to this for their first appointment.

Mum came home and was determined to make her 48th Wedding Anniversary. She made this goal and passed in her bed a few days later surrounded by Dad, my sister and I on the 13th of June.

6.5 weeks from her diagnosis and just under 9 weeks from the incident at work she was gone. Nothing prepared us for something so small to have such a massive outcome.

This whole experience was a double edged sword for us.

We are thankful for the incident at her work. Without that we wouldn’t have found out until much closer to the inevitable. Because of that we managed to rush my sister and her kids to us from interstate so Mum could spend a meaningful 2.5 weeks spending time with her grandkids.

But on the flip side because of the aggressiveness of the cancer we all only got a short time to make our last memories.

But on the other flip side it was in a way a blessing. There was no suffering. No having to deal treatments and side effects. While she was getting weaker by the day, we had 3 good weeks where she was Mum. And because of her work experience she knew when the time was up. She told us the day she knew she wasn’t getting out of bed and asked for a syringe driver. We organised one the day after her anniversary and she was right, she never got out of bed again. The day after she got the syringe driver she was basically comatose until her passing.

A couple of weeks after her diagnosis she told me why she was so scared and worried after the doctor’s call… She knew what was coming.

Being the superstitious spiritual person she was, she believed in old wives tales. One being that the person’s dead mother would come calling for them shortly before their passing.

Apparently about 2 weeks before her April diagnosis her mother came to her in a dream and simply said “you’re going to die from cancer”. Maybe their was some truth to these tales after all…

#36

When I was a child, I lived in Germany with my mother and father. We used to travel back to the UK every so often to see my grandparents.

I remember being about six years old and examining my grandmother’s gnarled, leathery-looking hands that were spotted with age. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I wondered if my soft, pink, plump hands would ever look that freaky.

Then I noticed a tiny bruise under her thumbnail. Like all children, I was worried she’d hurt herself and asked what happened. She couldn’t recall and shrugged it off as probably nothing.

A few months later, we returned for another holiday. As my grandma gripped my hand, I turned hers over to see that dark purple smudge blotted beneath her thumbnail. It hadn’t gone away in months! I told my grandmother, quite seriously, that she should see a doctor. She laughed at my gravely concerned little face, but promised me she would.

From then on, in every phone call and every letter, I pestered her about seeing a doctor. I can recall being both delighted and annoyed as my parents laughed behind their hands at how cute it all was. I would not drop the subject.

We got a call from my grandfather not long after. My grandma was having urgent and lifesaving surgery to remove her entire thumb. That stubborn little bruise was actually an extremely vicious and malignant cancer. Luckily, she’d kept her word and seen the doctor as promised, or it’s likely she wouldn’t still be here today, 27 years later.

I have no idea why I so urgently pushed her to see a doctor, as such a young child I couldn’t possibly have understood that a tiny bruise could be something so sinister. A very insistent voice inside me, that I’m still not quite sure was my own, thankfully wouldn’t let it go.

#37

When I moved to Thailand, I got really terrible acne on my chin.

I figured it was from the much hotter climate, different food, pollution, or water. Whatever the cause, I had a pizza face for the first time in years.

That summer, after being in Thailand for about 5 months, I suddenly had to go home for my grandma’s funeral. So, I scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist while I was there. My first dermatologist appointment in around 5 years.

When I got there, she gave me a topical medication to help me with my breakout.

But, she also noticed a very suspicious-looking mole while I was there.

She tested it and found that that mole was changing rapidly. It wasn’t quite cancer, but it was so close to becoming cancer that they treated it like cancer.

She immediately got me in to remove the mole, saying, if I waited any longer, skin cancer could have developed and spread.

It seemed to me like getting terrible acne from moving countries is what saved me from getting skin cancer. Without it, I never would have gone to the dermatologist and they wouldn’t have caught it in time.

It was the first time in my life that I thanked God for giving me acne.

#38

i had been having annoying neck and shoulder pain for months, probably over a year or more. I went to my doctor, who was an internal medicine doctor. He did a cursory check of things and decided I was most likely depressed. I didn’t believe so, but doctor knows best, right? I left his office with a prescription for Prozac. I took it for a month and didn’t feel any happier, nor was I in less pain. We tried muscle relaxants also. They didn’t help much, but at least made me sleep well. I stopped taking the antidepressant and went back to the doc.

He sent me to a rehabilitation doc who suggested physical therapy, so I started PT a couple times a week. I was fit at the time, and doing 100 mile cycling rides (centuries) and sprint and Olympic level triathlons. I had knots that had formed in my shoulders and neck. The PT put me in traction and started putting intense pressure on the knots. The pain was excruciating!!

As the months passed, there was no real progress, except I started getting shooting shock like pains in the side of my face that would make me twitch. They were intense, yet momentary. The rehab doc decided it was time for MRI’s of my head and neck. He said the scans came back with nothing significant and decided we would start a course of lidocaine injection therapy. He explained this would offer me weeks of relief and stop the muscle knots and spasming. I also continued the PT.

I went and had the injections. One injection went into every significant knot in my shoulders. I think it was about 10 Injections.

What I haven’t mentioned, is during this same time period, my partner had been diagnosed with chronic overactive autoimmune disorder, which was determined to be attacking her liver. Her liver was being destroyed and we were making trips across the state to the transplant hospital and waiting on the donor list. This process is very slow, and quite honestly, a person has to be literally dying to get to the top of the list. In addition, we were raising my 3 year old granddaughter at the time and both of us were working full time. Tough times, indeed.

The injections didn’t seem to work for more than a couple days. I called the doc and he was dumbfounded. He said the injections should have provided relief for weeks and said we would try another round. He referred to a neurologist for nerve testing. The testing showed nothing notable.

During that time, I found a largish lump in my neck. It was close to my lymph gland, and felt like it – but it wasn’t quite in the right place. When I went for my appointment, I asked him what he thought about it. He looked shocked and sent me for more MRI’s.

When I met to review the new scans, he sheepishly admitted the first scans had showed a problem and the doctor reviewing them said I needed further testing that extended further down my spine. The new scans showed a massive schwannoma growing on my spinal cord and enveloping my C-2 nerve. The entire process to get the diagnosis was close to a year.

I was referred back to the neurologist, who quickly said he couldn’t help me. The tumor was too entangled and it was beyond his scope of expertise. He referred me to another neuro. That doctor said the same, and then referred me to the chief of Neurology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He had concerns, but took the case. We scheduled the surgery for a couple months forward – he explained it was a slow growing non-malignant tumor and a slow approach would give me time to get my affairs in order.

Then, my partner suddenly died. An anyeurism in her pancreas suddenly, unexpectedly burst while she was at work. She never came home and had passed before I got to the hospital. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was trying to explain to my granddaughter why her other grandma wasn’t coming home again. Ever.

As I write this, I still don’t know how I survived those days and weeks. What a horrible nightmare.

I had the surgery, which saved my life. The Neurologist was shocked at how bad the

#39

When I was 25 years old (2016) I was feeling tired and run down a lot. My girlfriend at the time told me I should see a doctor, but I really don’t like going to the doctor.

I eventually decided to take her advice and got an appointment for a checkup.

During the checkup the doctor was feeling my throat and said something feels wrong. He decided to send me to a specialist to have some more tests done.

(rewind 3 years)

My 51 year old father noticed a big lump in his throat that appeared almost out of nowhere. After several tests we found out he had a rare type of thyroid cancer called Anaplastic thyroid cancer. The mortality rate is almost 100% making it one of the deadliest diseases there is. It’s also extremely rare (especially for men), and almost always occurs in people over 60. At the time the doctor said there’s a very good chance he had been exposed to radiation at some point. After about 3 months of the most horrific things I could ever imagine happening to a human, my dad died.

(fast forward 3 years)

I went to UCLA and had all sorts of biopsies and imaging done, but everything came back inconclusive. They said that usually they’d just assume it was a cyst but because of my fathers history they recommended doing a partial thyroidectomy on my right side.

I did the surgery and a few days later the doctor tells me there was a lot of cancer on my thyroid and even though there’s no problem with my left side yet we should remove that as well just in case.
We waited a few weeks to let the initial wound heal and then they removed the other side.

A few days later my doctor calls me and tells me that they found cancer on this side as well and some cancer on my lymph nodes, but she’s confident that they caught it quick enough so that it wouldn’t have gone to my lymphatic system.

So far so good. I’m going to be on thyroid medication for the rest of my life and I have big scar on my throat, but I’m alive. Fortunately it was just papillary thyroid cancer, but they believed that it very well could have progressed to what happened to my father.
Again the doctor said that it sounds like we may have been exposed to radiation.

Kind of off topic, but I found out a couple years later that there was a huge nuclear disaster that has been covered up by the government and Boeing for many years where I grew up. I lived in the hills of Chatsworth California and the nuclear disaster happened just a couple miles away. There has been an explosion in that area and all around Los Angeles of abnormal cancers similar to mine and my dads happening for decades. Lots of cancer survivors are still working to get the site cleaned up, but there is a lot of money fighting back. If you’re at all interested in learning more about this the nuclear site is called the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

#40

When I was 18 I was at university. One of my friends asked if I could see alright as he had noticed me squinting. I had had an eye check as a routine test at the GPs only a few months earlier and could read the bottom line of the chart; my eyesight was fine.

Over the next few weeks I noticed I was squinting so went closer and closer to the front so I could read it. My friends started offering me appointments to the optometrist that they could not make. I said I wanted to go when I went home for Easter.

I got my mum to make me an appointment and she dropped me off. The optometrist was a friend of my parents. He was quite chatty and told me I was probably just a bit short-sighted.

He then said, “No, we won’t make any assumptions till after we do the check.”

He remained fine.

I could not read the second line on the chart – with either eye. This was only about three months after reading all the lines at the doctor’s. He went through the tests to see what glasses I needed and checked my eyes.The slit lamp, all normal stuff, until he finished my eye exam.

He looked at me and said that I would need corrective lenses but he wanted to call my mother and wait till she got there to discuss what was wrong with my eyes. I knew then it was serious. Wearing glasses is not that big a deal — more must be going on.

Mum arrived 10 minutes or so later and he explained I have keratoconus and may go blind. Glasses would not correct my vision; I would need hard contact lenses and to see a special lens fitter in the city and an opthalmologist. In the meantime I got glasses. I was 18.

I was contact lens intolerant. My parents spent thousands on lenses I could not wear. A few years later my sister also got the same diagnosis. She was also lens intolerant.

At 26 I literally walked in front of a car I could not see; my eyesight was that bad. Even wearing glasses I could not read the top line on the chart.

That year I had my first corneal graft (transplant); the next year my other eye was done. I still cannot wear contacts but am currently legal to drive with glasses.

It has been a rocky road but I saw my kids reach adulthood.

#41

I was working a double at a restaurant one night. It had been exactly one month since my 21st birthday. Towards the end of my shift, I just felt off. Lightheaded and extremely thirsty but no matter how much water i drank i couldnt quench my thirst. I thought maybe i was dehydrated or something else that wasnt a big deal. I decided to go to the ER to get checked out to be safe.

My coworker drove me to the hospital after my shift was over. I went to the check in desk and briefly explained what was going on. Despite the ER being full i was immediately taken back to triage.

A nurse mentioned to another nurse that my breath smelled sweet. I covered my mouth wishing i had stopped home to brush my teeth as i thought she meant i had bad breath. They checked my blood sugar. It was 338. I asked if that was bad but didn’t recieve an answer.

I was taken back and they ran bloodwork. Several hours later I still didn’t know what was going on. I demanded to see a doctor.

A doctor came in shortly after and informed me i had juvenile diabetes, known as type 1 diabetes now. I was admitted and taken to a room where i would learn how significantly my life was gonna change.

Its been 9 years now and its still a battle everyday. But im winning. I will not let this disease tear me down.

#42

In the spring of 2021 when Covid was still going strong, the company I worked for noticed that I was coughing a lot. I have bad allergies and told them that is what it mostly likely was. They insisted I go and get tested just to be sure. I went to urgent care and they did a rapid Covid test which came back negative.

They asked me if I had any other health issues and I told them that I had been feeling tired and got out of breath easily. I thought it was just because I was getting older. They did some blood work and it turns out my blood iron levels were only about one-fourth the level they were supposed to be, 3.4 instead of the minimum lower level of 12. I was severely anemic. They told me to go to the ER and get further checked out.

I went to the VA hospital. They determined I needed blood transfusions to get my iron levels to where they need to be. They admitted me for three days over which I received three pints of blood before they were satisfied my iron levels were going in the right direction. During my stay, they did a wide variety of tests to determine why my blood iron levels were so low including my first ever colonoscopy (I was 51).

When I woke up from the colonoscopy they have me the bad news; colon cancer. They took me straight to have a CT scan and after that they have me the really bad news; stage 4B colon cancer, only one stage less than the worst possible diagnosis. The coughing was due to the cancer having spread into a tumor on my lung. Stage 4B has only a 14% survival rate after five years. So far I’m 18 months into bi-weekly intensive chemotherapy. The side effects are hell but I’ll do whatever it takes to be there for my daughter as long as possible.

Get those colonoscopies early! If I had, my life would be radically different.

#43

Yes. I was feeling a little under the weather for a little over a week. My ear was giving me trouble, stopped up feeling, dizziness, etc. – I thought I had a regular ear infection. So, I went to see a doctor in my local Walgreens or CVS (I can’t remember which one). They looked and told me I had an ear infection and gave me antibiotics. After a few days, I started having some pain in my ear and the stopped-up feeling wasn’t getting better, but I just told myself, “Things will get worse before they get better. The antibiotics haven’t had enough time to work”. I finished the antibiotics and things were worse, but what drove me back to the clinic was the pain. So, I go back and they tell me that they can see there is some pressure on my eardrum and some redness, and they prescribe a new, stronger antibiotic. Ok, I didn’t think any more of it. I finished the medication, but things did not get any better, so I went back a third time. At this visit, I was told that I would need to go see an ENT doctor because they couldn’t do any more for me.

I was able to schedule an appointment with an ENT pretty quickly and went in thinking it would be pretty routine. The doctor asked some questions and looked in my ears. He surprised me by telling me there was no ear infection. “So what’s causing these symptoms?” I asked. He then sent me for an MRI, which would provide more information. I went for the MRI a few days later and returned to see the doctor a few days after that. I should have known something was wrong when the doctor came into the exam room – his face told me that this was something more serious. He put up the MRI images, told me I had a brain tumor, and then showed me the MRI. For some odd reason, I honestly thought he was kidding, I thought it was a sick joke and actually told him so. “This is not funny”. He didn’t seem surprised by my response. I found out that patients in this situation are in disbelief and my response was more of the more common reactions. An acoustic neuroma. He said that it’s rare but benign and can cause all of the symptoms I was having. My mind was spinning, I couldn’t comprehend it. Even though the tumor was small, it was causing so many problems – some hearing loss, tinnitus, nausea, vomiting, severe vertigo, loss of balance, and headaches.

I had brain surgery the following month. It took about 5 hours, but the doctors were able to successfully remove the entire tumor. I will admit, I had a little bit of a setback, but after many weeks of physical therapy, I’m doing pretty ok. The hearing in my right ear has decreased since surgery, requiring the use of a hearing aid, and the tinnitus will never go away, but things are ok.

#44

For a couple of years prior to 2015, I asked my doctor at my annual physical about a lump behind my ear. He didn’t seem concerned and passed it off as most likely a blocked salivary gland. In November 2015, I mentioned to him that it was sore to the touch. He said just BLOCKED salivary glands don’t usually hurt. So, he sent me for an ultrasound and from that a needle biopsy that turned up “suspicious cells”. On December 3rd they took me in for surgery to remove it. The ENT surgeon said the tumor he saw on the ultrasound was benign 80% of the time.

During my surgery, he came out and told my wife it was quite different than he had expected it to be. It was a malignant tumor that had wrapped itself around two branches of my facial nerve. He further told her that he needed her to decide for me (I was still asleep) what he should do. 1. Clean it up the best he could and risk not getting all of the tumor, but spare the nerves or 2. Cut the nerves and risk facial paralysis, but remove the tumor in one piece. She told him to GET IT OUT. It was the right choice. I do have some mild paralysis but after 32 radiation treatments and six weeks of chemo, I am cancer free. I ended up needing a feeding tube for three months and lost 28 lbs. but that April I was able to meet my twin grand babies when they came along.

#45

When I gave birth to my first child, two months afterwards I had the worst bout of heartburn of my life. I had eaten a single slice of vegetarian pizza, extra sauce. Just one, and couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. My life continued on it’s course.

Enter sushi night with my favorite 911 roll that had extra spicy tuna and garlic bits. I had exactly three pieces, played a bit of a particular game, and went to bed around three hours later. Again, had the worst heartburn, this time it gave the previous bout a run for it’s money. I shrugged it off, and went about my life.

Some of you already know where this is going, but I’ll continue.

I had a few more bouts of this over the next 17 months. Then, it happened.

My husband, who I was in the first steps of a relationship with and we met through friend online, was set for our Saturday night “date.” I informed him I was picking up my very favorite salsa and guacamole with an oreo cookie shake I fully intended to pass to my son after a few sips. I did just that. A few sips of the shake, I then ate a cup of tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole and sat down to our little date. I started to feel a bit off.

I thought it was my heartburn. Excused myself and got some tums and continued, except, it wasn’t heartburn, this was different. I excused myself, called my ex husband to get our child and laid down on the couch. For the next 24 hours I felt like something was sitting on my chest and stubborn me refused to go to the doctor.

I finally at my now husband’s insistence went into the hospital. Down played it to my cousin who dropped me off on the other side of the ER and went home. I walked very slowly in to the ER who didn’t take me seriously and kept me waiting in the waiting room for five hours on the chairs that I was laying down in the whole time.

I got triaged, and the second they took my vitals the nurse went white and asked me what my pain level was. I said an 11, and promptly burst into tears. Got put back into the room, and the doctor, who I found out was a surgeon, came in and didn’t even ask me more than one question, which was “Where does it hurt?” I pointed to my chest and he winced and said, “I am SO sorry.” and pressed down.

I screamed. Only time I have ever screamed like that before or after. Even during labor I didn’t do that.

Yeah, I was admitted and he told me surgery was being scheduled as soon as there was an opening. He told me that even before the ultra sound was set up. I asked “For what?!”

“Oh, I am quite certain that your gall bladder needs to come out. As of yesterday. “

It was and it did.

Stones were spilling out as well. Laparoscopy performed and sent home a happy camper less than 24 hours later.

I learned that weekend heartburn sometimes wasn’t just “heartburn.”

#46

Not me but my Mom. I was about 8 years old, only child, Dad was over the road truck driver so it was just mom and me in our mobile home in nowhere Iowa. I was in bed and heard thumping and banging noises coming from the hallway. Opened my bedroom door to find mom on the floor in front of my room. She gasped “I’m sick” and didn’t speak anymore. I remember she had an infected hangnail she had been soaking in epsom salt the day before. The finger was red, swollen, and there was a red line running from the finger to her upper arm. She was feverish, vomiting, unable to stand. I called the nearest hospital and they blew me off telling me it was the flu. I’m pretty sure they could tell I was a child so did not take me seriously. This was before cell phones so no way to get ahold of dad. I’m not sure why but I had it in my head that if the red line got to her heart, she would die. I was pretty close to panicking at this point so I went next door and woke up the neighbors for help. They took her straight to the ER where they started her on antibiotics and kept her for a week. They wouldn’t tell me much because I was a kid but Mom told me later I saved her life. She almost died from an infected hangnail.

#47

In 2015, while driving a rental truck to transport my son from college to his first job, I developed a pain in my calf. It felt tight, like a muscle that needed to be stretched, maybe having pulled it earlier moving furniture. Nothing seemed to help it, so after spending the night in a hotel, my wife hounded me into finding the nearest urgent care center to have it checked out. Really? For a pulled muscle? Recently, the husband of her best friend had a blood clot in his leg. So naturally, I must have one too. ?

Dammit, she was right. I had a clot. But…blood tests showed the reason I had developed the clot was because about 85% of my blood were mutant blast cells. (Blasts are non-functional, immature blood cells, normal is normal is <5%). This proliferation of new blast cells was causing an artery to clog. However, the blood clot was the least of my problems. After further study by an oncologist, it was determined I had leukemia (AML), and unfortunately, a nasty, aggressive version of it (FLT3 mutation). The high blasts also meant that only 15% of my blood was still working. My last blood test before this was four months prior (another very interesting story) but my blood was clean then.
During the months just before my diagnosis, I had been taking a LOT of ibuprofen because of achy joints. Because of the AML, I wasn't allowed to take it anymore and subsequently came to realize that the ibuprofen had been masking severe bone pain caused by the leukemia — which was now unmasked. Over the next weeks I was on fentanyl, dilaudid, morphine, etc and none of those came close to touching the bone pain like ordinary ibuprofen had. I was on a time-limited self-dosing drips of hard-core narcotics and I would stare at the light all day long waiting until the next instant I could press the button. The point is, had I not been gorging on ibuprofen, the pain would have let me know much earlier something was wrong.
We ended up in a hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about 1,000 miles from home, and still around 200 miles from my son's destination. The next few days were about getting me okay to travel. They got my blast count down a bit, and put an IVC filter down my jugular to catch any clots that might dislodge from my leg. We finally drove to my son's destination, and the next day flew back home to Texas. We then re-packed in about 15 minutes, and drove five hours to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. We went there instead of locally as it was among the very best centers in the world for leukemia. My wife and I more or less lived there for the next year, and even today we still have to visit there monthly — sometimes weekly.
A lot of stuff has happened in the six years since, secondary illnesses, laboreous treatments, invasive procedures, drainage tubes, fists full of medications, even a couple of instances of rubbing shoulders with death. I won't bore you with that tumultuous history, but today I sit here a frail man with a compromised immune system, still battling complications from my stem cell transplant over 6 years ago. My life is now nothing like what it was in my past. But I'm thankful for my donor, the time I've been given with my family, and the days yet to come. I miss a few of the pleasures in life I've lost, but am now acceptant of my 'new normal' and will enjoy everything I can to the fullest.
And I have to add, I'm thankful that I have a loving, caring wife that nagged me into checking out my leg. ?
EDIT: I just passed eight years and while I'm still here, I've lost more weight and it's all I can do to stay on my feet. In 2022 I was in the hospital four times, with one very serious long stay. Yet, I still find joy with my family, playing with our boxer, being active when I can. Life is a great thing. Cherish it.

#48

This is a slightly different take on the “something small” concept.

Just over 20 years ago I developed a nasty chest infection which was going around the hospital where I worked. Like most people who got it, I was coughing up phlegm for about six weeks.

Unlike the others, though, I didn’t stop coughing, although the cough became dry. For six months I coughed violently at the slightest provocation – often until I either vomited or wet myself or both. The NHS tried me on a battery of tests and medications, including an inhaler in case I’d developed asthma, and blowing into a measuring gadget several times a day for weeks, but nothing helped.

Finally, they had me doing a battery of lung-volume tests which required me to cough as violently as I could. So I did. I coughed so hard I coughed up a little pea-sized glob of solidified phlegm which must have been sitting somewhere in my larynx, irritating it, for six months. Once that was out – no more cough.

#49

I was bored in English class one day and happened to notice a bump on one arm that wasn’t on the other arm. I mentioned that in passing to my stepmother who decided I should have it seen. Even though I was a high school senior, my medical records had go to the same pediatrician as my siblings when we moved several years before. Since I hadn’t had any reason to see a doctor in the intervening time, that’s where they were, so off to him I went. Besides, it was just a bump on the arm, so no big deal, right?

The pediatrician looked it over, decided it was probably a hematoma, but that it should be X-rayed and I should see him again in a week. I got the X-ray, but was busy and since it was probably nothing time went by. Fortunately, after about 3 weeks, I needed to get a physical as part of the college admission process. I went back to him and he did the physical, then asked about the bump. I said that it hadn’t he changed. He examined it, said that it was bigger and kind of freaked out repeating “Why didn’t you come in to see me sooner!”

He decided that I should see a pediatric surgeon for a biopsy. My initial plan was to do that in a couple of days since I was missing classes. He had the nurse call the surgeon’s office, explain that they were sending a patient over, and then put me on to make the arrangements. Guess I’m missing the rest of my classes for the day.

The pediatric surgeon said that he wasn’t used to patients who drove themselves to their appointments. He set up a biopsy for a few days away. The lump was a tumor and a very unusual one at that.

Being a good student, I timed everything so that I finished up my classes before heading to MD Anderson for treatment. However, I missed graduation and apparently no one had thought to tell those running graduation that I wouldn’t be there, so my name was called and then there was a pause while they waited for me to appear. It was a weird enough tumor that they treated it there rather than sending me back home with a prescription for treatment. I have the diagnosis from then, but that was for a tumor that usually shows up in the bone (mine was in the muscle) and in 80 year olds. A doctor I saw a few years back said that they often misdiagnosed back then (compared with what’s known now), but had no reason to question that diagnosis if the treatment worked.

That was all about thirty-eight years ago. In a number of ways, I’ve been extremely lucky with it all. But that (small) bump on my arm turned out to be quite significant.

#50

I’m 61 years old. When I was 50 I decided to go get a check-up for for the first time in about 25 years. I felt fine but thought it might be a good idea to make sure everything was ok. My family had a history of long and healthy lives. Many living into their 90’s and even 100’s. I smoked, ate what I wanted, drank, and didn’t exercise. I was cocky. I even put off my checkup till I was 52. (Hey, I feel fine!). Fast forward, Doc wanted me to get an MRI, I do. He calls me a few days later and says I have an “ascending aortic aneurysm”. He said it’s not big enough to operate but it does need to be monitored. Three months later I wake up and my face is swollen and looks like a red balloon. That has never happened before. My wife insists I go see the doctor. I go (reluctantly). “I feel fine!” The nurse practitioner (Melody❤️!) tells me it’s an allergic reaction to something and have I changed anything in my daily routine. Of course not! I’m 52 years old! She said if it happens again call her.

Now…I’m getting ready to leave and making small talk when Melody’s expression kind of changes. She asks me if she can listen to my heart. I am kind of taken aback but told her, sure. She put the stethoscope to my chest and asked, “How long have you had the murmur?” “What murmur?” She looked at me and said, “You have a very loud murmur”. (She knew about my aneurysm.). Long story short, my aneurysm had ballooned very rapidly and I was in surgery in just a few days. My doctor told me if I would have waited it probably would have dissected in less than a year and I would have died instantly. He did say it might have happened later, but it would have definitely killed me.

Melody told me later that she just had a strong feeling that she had to listen to my heart. She also said I’m the reason she listens to the heart of every one of her patients before they leave. Oh yea, I’ve not had any kind of allergic reaction since then, and I had never had one before.

I’m not particularly religious and I have often struggled with belief. I don’t know what to make of this experience, but I can’t help but think something was looking out for me. In case your wondering, my surgery and recovery have been outstanding. My cardiologist tells me I’m one of his success stories. Melody still works for my G.P. and I consider her my guardian Angel.

#51

It started with some constipation, which had lasted about a week. I tried several of the over-the-counter mild laxatives, but did not seem to get any relief. So I got a stronger laxative, you know, the kind that makes you cramp when it is working. Well, nothing happened.

So after about 10 days days, I finally went to see my doctor. Well the doctor was busy, so I got to see the nurse practitioner.

The nurse practitioner told me I had severe constipation and sent me home with a prescription for a medical-grade laxative. Three days later, nothing.

Now I am getting a little worried. I am thinking to myself, going that long without eliminating waste cannot be good. Could there be a toxic build-up?

I call the doctor’s office and insist on seeing the actual doctor. The next day at the doctor’s office we go through the whole timeline and all the different products I have tried and been given. He tells me that I may be impacted or have a bowel obstruction. He tells me to try another stronger laxative. He also instructed me to have a colonoscopy due to my age, and has the nurse set an appointment for me with the gastroenterologist.

Of course the GI doctor orders me the prep for the procedure. Man, that was some nasty stuff, but I did finally get some relief due to the prep solution basically liquifying everything in my intestines. It should basically make you run clear, or at least mostly, but for me it did not. I know, TMI.

On the day of the procedure I am brought in dressed in the appropriate open-back gown. They run an IV and wheel me into the exam room. They administer the sedative and out I go.

When I woke up from my short slumber, they told me to get dressed. They told my wife and me that the doctor was waiting in his office to see me. I knew it could not be good news, as most doctors will visit you at the hospital bed and relay their findings.

When I arrived at the GI doctor’s office, we were ushered right in. He proceeds to tell me that he did not complete the examination. He said they were about 6–7 inches into the colon with the camera when they found the obstruction. There was a protrusion on the interior wall of the colon large enough to create the blockage. He was showing us the images from the camera, and just stated it was cancer.

I was in shock, to say the least. My wife was in shock. Everything the doctor said after that point was like a Peanuts cartoon: “Wha wha, wha wha wha.” I honestly do not remember much of that conversation.

Three days later I was in the hospital for a procedure to remove the cancer. The surgeon cut out an eight-inch section of my colon and resectioned the colon. It turns out I had Stage 2 cancer. It had grown to 6 centimeters, but had not spread to any surrounding lymph nodes. I had, by the grace of God, found it early enough.

I had the surgery and a few treatments of chemo. I am happy and grateful to say I have been cancer free for about 10 years now.

GOING TO BE PREACHY NOW

People, get your yearly physicals including a colonoscopy if you are over 40. Those little polyps that form in most people’s colons can become cancerous.

Men, get that prostate checked. I know, no one want a finger up the ____, but it is better than having something cut out or irradiated.

#52

When I was 25 weeks pregnant, I was sent home from work (as a Nurse) with shortness of breathe and chestpain. My doctor was concerned it would be lung clots, although I did not have any signs of the usual DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). My ECG (heart monitoring) came back normal and my D dimer test came back positive (high clotting factors but this is usual in pregnancy). My doctor was very worried so sent me to the ER with a reference. My midwife happened to be there and had a look at the reference but dismissed it saying it was ridiculous. I was also in an abusive relationship, so when I returned home, my then partner told me I was lying and being a drama queen, so I ignored it.

Life got in the way. I ended up leaving my abusive partner just three days after this. Fast forward to 29 weeks pregnant, for three days I had been getting severe shortness of breathe and chest pains again. I recalled my doctors concern and went into the ER again. Once again, despite my being a Nurse or my Doctors prior concerns, they put it down to the fact I was heavily pregnant.

The ECG once again came back clear and they did another D dimer test which is hard to tell with accuracy whether the levels are raised by pregnancy or an underlying medical issue.

They did not want to do further testing due to my being pregnant but I insisted. I was in the ER “overnight stay” ward for 3 nights as they conducting ultrasounds on my heart, where I was basically told by the technician (naughty) that he didn’t think I have blood clots. I was treated like a liar and a drama queen. But I persisted to have a CT scan done. Surely enough on the 4th day (obviously wanting me to leave), the allowed a CT scan to be done, whereupon, they found several lung clots in both lungs.

They called hemotologists to attend me from around Australia. The doctors and nurses all looked very freaked out with this medical phenomenon. They decided to induce labour and start me on 80mg of clexane BID (twice daily). I was also stuck in hospital for 2 weeks after giving birth with fears that the clots could rupture.

Sometimes, you just have to persist with your gut and head knowledge. Even when other’s doubt you.

#53

About 13 years ago I went to the doctor for recurring fevers. Every six weeks or so I’d get a high fever and be sick for about five days. Sometimes the fevers were as high as 103°F (39.5°C). Blood work was fine. I was told nothing was wrong. I kept getting the fevers and kept going to the doctor and leaving with no diagnosis.

One Saturday I was sick and I went to the clinic. The doctor on call that day thought something wasn’t right and sent me to an oncologist. Turned out I had lymphoma, a kind called Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia.

The doctor first tried a chemo. drug but it didn’t work. He decided to do a stem cell transplant using my own stem cells. They took my cells out and then blasted me one time with a very intense chemo. drug then the cells were put back in. I had the usual hair loss but, before it fell out in clumps, I decided to just shave my head.

The treatment worked like a charm! I was back to work in four months.

#54

A headache that just wouldn’t go away. Tylenol, Ibuprofen, sinus meds, rehydrating, eating something, readjusting my sleep, getting my eyes checked and new glasses didn’t help…. I was at a loss. I just didn’t know what else to do.

I had 2 previous migraines years ago. The first lasted a month and the second lasted 3 months. I thought perhaps that was what it was.

Several Dr. visits later, diagnosis Chronic Migraine. I got a prescription for the med that worked last time with no positive outcome, if anything it was getting worse. They tried adding other medications, no relief. I had to stop working. They periodically took MRI’s. I changed Neurologist. A new round of test. It had been less than a year but it seemed like forever. Light hurt, talking was difficult. I knew what I wanted to say but couldn’t form a sentence. Time was lost on me. I couldn’t tell how fast or how slowly it moved. I lost vision in my left eye. The news came… I had a brain tumor. Operable but may still be deadly due to location. May be cancer…. 50/50 chance of surviving surgery. 100% lethal without surgery. I had surgery, 5 yrs survivor. It started with a headache at the Farmers market on a hot July Saturday morning. I now have a scar that dented-in the left side of my forehead with an incision line hidden in my hairline. I wear bangs to hide my forehead. I am thankful to God, John Hopkins Neuro team, Dr Brem, my husband Jake, and my family for their prayers. Btw, I regained my sight and I still have lots of migraines almost daily. A lot less pain though due to better medication . When I am tired I still have trouble communicating and time is still a problem. Light sensitivity, weather changes, ears ringing, balance issues, memory problems. BUT I’m ALIVE!!!!

UPDATE: Thank you each and every one for your positive comments, your upvotes and shares.
I just would like to stress to listen to your body and your gut instinct. There was more to this story but I condensed it because I had told the other parts in other questions answered. So if you don’t get answers that seem right, get second and third opinions. If nothing else, I hope that’s your take away. God Bless.

#55

I went into 2 separate doctors twice for a lump in my breast almost exactly a year apart. The first time I felt it and went in it was pretty small but noticeable to myself. Maybe dime size. This doctor felt my breast and told me he clearly felt the lump but that it was clearly nothing to worry about. That I was too young to worry about stuff like that. I was 26. So then a year later I went to a new doctor after with my current fiancé he had felt the lump and told me to get it checked out. I went into a brand new doctor, got another breast exam done, was told almost the exact same thing, “I feel the lump but it’s nothing for you to worry about, you are too young to worry about it.” This time it was about this size of a quarter now. A few days later, I was speaking to a friend of a friend that was an ER nurse and explained my lump and she took a look, noticed immediately my nipple was inverted and I had dimpling, and URGED ME TO IMMEDIATELY GET A MAMMOGRAM. This was only a few days after that last appointment. So I called that last doctors nurses the next morning and very aggressively told them I didn’t care what he said that I requested a mammogram immediately. The hoops I had to jump through during that entire process was crazy. I was assured the entire process that there was absolutely no possible way it was of any concern and they fought with me the entire process of mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy, the whole 9 yards. 2 days after my testing, they called me and informed me I had a very rare form of breast cancer that is extremely rare to be seen in anyone under 50–60+ years old. I was stage 3B and it was spreading slowly to my chest wall and we basically caught it just before it spread any further. We had to work extremely fast and aggressively. I just turned 30 this year and so far I’m NED (no evidence detected) but if I had listened to them I certainly don’t think I would be around today.

Update: In April 2021 they found a reoccurrence during my pregnancy. I’m now stage 4 and it’s going to end my life eventually. I’m 30. I have 2 little boys now that will lose their parent very early in their lives because of negligent Dr’s. I actually had seen a new Dr in February who disregard bone pain also. They had let it spread much to far to come back from. Thank you for the upvotes. It needs more attention that Dr’s need to listen to their patients better when they know something is wrong. Also, please advocate for yourself if something feels wrong.

#56

I was around eight years old when I noticed that I couldn’t read the whiteboard in class. My mother took me to the doctor’s office, and I got tested and fitted for glasses. This is pretty typical.

Now, when you have glasses, you have to go back to the doctor once or twice a year, especially when you’re still growing, to take a vision test again and adjust the prescription. My eyes grew worse a lot faster than other kids. After only a few months of use my vision would get blurry even while wearing the glasses. Me and my mother thought nothing of this. Until I was in fifth grade.

In fifth grade, I went to the optometrist for another exam. I was chatting with the doctor there, and I mentioned how fast my vision got worse after I received a new prescription. He looked very confused, and asked if he could do additional tests.

He brought me over to this boxy machine, almost like the vision tests they make you take in school. I peered inside it, with my glasses on. There was a small picture with a green field, a yellow path, and a red barn. The doctor looked into another area of the machine, presumably to look at my eye. He turned a nob, and the picture grew blurry. This is pretty typical, so I didn’t think much of it. He did this a couple more times, then handed me my glasses and asked if he could speak to my mother.

When my mother came in, he said something that really shocked me. Apparently, I did not only have bad eyesight. Apparently, my eyes have a muscular problem, where they are actually unable to focus on images. Normal people, if they had gone through that test, would barely have noticed that the barn grew blurry, as their eyes would focus on it and it would barely look blurry. My eyes can’t do that.

Not only this, but it’s more of a problem with my brain than with my eyes. My brain isn’t able to “give the command” to focus on an image. The doctor said that there is no cure for my problem. The worst bit of information was that, if it doesn’t go away on it’s own, I will most likely end up fully blind later in life.

As of right now, I’m still in my twenties, so it isn’t that bad yet. But I really hope that my eyes will fix themselves, and I’m really thankful for that doctor who put in extra effort to diagnose me.

Edit: So a lot of the people in the comments are asking me about treatment. I have seen numerous doctors about my eyesight, and have basically received all of the tests and treatments that could possibly help, with no results. I really appreciate all of your support in the comments, though. Thanks for the help

#57

I went in for a routine ultrasound. It would have been scheduled later, but the assistant to my nurse midwife found out I would consider abortion if the baby had certain disorders and wanted to get me if before it would be too late.

The morning of I felt so ill I almost didn’t go, but my babies dad talked me into it. I was 22.5 weeks along and having a horrible time. Abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting everyday. I had been to the ER 8 times at this point and had a hospital stay, but they kept sending me home saying my potassium was too low and maybe constipation but that was all. We thought maybe if I went to that ultrasound they might discover something new. We were right.

I went in to the room for the ultrasound. The tech started by looking at my baby and printed pictures for us, told us it was a girl. Then she moved her device to my right ovary. Everything still fine and going as expected. Then my left. Right when the ultrasound device hit it, I began throwing up. Her face showed immediate concern, but I don’t think she was qualified to tell me something was wrong.

She left for a moment to get the doctor, came back and continued looking at my ovaries while we waited for the doctor. Everytime she went over the left one I vomited, sometimes multiple times. The doctor came in and looked, at both my ovaries and the baby, let me know the baby was healthy and asked if I could wait in his office for a little bit.

I waited there with my now ex significant other. He complained about it taking so long. I told him something is probably wrong and that is why. I just kept looking at all the diplomas on the wall of this obstetricians office keeping my mind clear and not too busy with what could be wrong.

Then I was called in. The doctor explained something was wrong with my ovary and I would need to be admitted to the hospital. While waiting for my room I kept throwing up in the waiting room of the obstetrics outpatient office. I eventually got to a room in the mother baby unit and another obstetrician came into see me. She said that I have an ovarian torsion. That means my ovary is twisting around and around. I would be getting an MRI that night.

After the MRI I was finally getting hungry and less nauseous so I ordered mashed potatoes. Once they arrived the nurse came running in saying the doctor just changed my diet orders and I was not allowed to eat. I took one bite and then the nurse removed the food.

The doctor came in moments later saying I would need surgery that night as soon as she could get a hold of the on call gynecological surgeon. It was so bad she was concerned about it bursting soon and all the toxins being released in my body killing my baby and possibly me.

I had surgery that night. Scariest moment of my life was waking up in the OR not knowing if my baby was okay. The surgery staff immediately calmed me down and said the baby was fine. The surgery was a success, my entire left ovary removed. It was completely necrotic (dead) tissue, so if there was a tumor causing it pathology wouldn’t even know. So the cause is unknown.

My baby’s (now seven-year-olds) life was saved that night, aswell as maybe my own, thanks to an awesome medical team including a surgeon that took on a task most would refuse.

The following week after my hospital stay I had very little nausea, and went from 108 lbs (at 5 months pregnant) to 118 lbs. I had a healthy 7.5 lb baby 4 months later.

#58

On August 16th, 2020 I went to the hospital for what I thought was either a very severely strained lower back muscle or maybe a kidney stone. It was the first time I had gone to a see a doctor in decades. Nothing against them, just never really had a need. But this was definitely different. I had to go home from work early in pain the first night. The next night I called out, the following night I lasted 2 hours and didn’t come back the rest of the week. Anyone who knows me, knows something has to be wrong for me to miss that many days in a year, much less in a row.

My wife finally convinced me to go so I tried but couldn’t get going. We agreed to go to the ER the next day. Saturday came and went. I couldn’t muster up the strength to go sit in the ER for who knew how long, I thought I would just try to hold out until Monday and go see the doctor then. Sunday morning I knew that wasn’t going to be possible so I took care of those last minute chores, got cleaned up and off I went to the hospital.

When I got there, I told the front desk staff my problems and they took me immediately to the back and started checking everything out. After several tests, blood work, scans, and so on, 5 hours or more had passed by and still no news. I no sooner looked towards my wife and told her if all they were going to do was run tests, I would come back in the morning and finish up (laughing half-heartedly) when the doctor came in and told me that while they were examining the CT Scan results from my kidneys they found a massive tumor in my right lung. They told me they wanted to carry me back for another CT scan, but this time they wanted a picture of my lungs. Not only that, they said I needed to get started on testing the tumor(s) immediately and they wanted to transfer me to the main hospital in their system right then and there. An ambulance was on the way.

Needless to say, I was “STUNNED”, but consented. They weren’t kidding. I got over to the main hospital and settled in about 9 that night. The next morning at 3-o-clock, I was awakened to be carried to the MRI lab to begin a series of scans that lasted for 2 days. On Wednesday, I had a biopsy done. On Friday, I got the news that I had Stage 4 lung cancer that had metastasized and spread to several organs in my body. The pain in my back was caused a tumor that formed on my spine and was sending pain signals through the nerve.

This in and of itself is enough to shake someone up, but it came on top of the news eight months earlier that my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 uterine cancer that had spread throughout her body. She was in her second round of chemotherapy at that time. I can still remember the look on her face when the doctor told us my diagnosis in that ER.

Up until that Sunday night when the doctor told me the initial news, I honestly thought it was just a minor issue that would be fixed with a prescription or two.

What a surprise.

UPDATE: Thank you for all the support everyone. I wanted to let everyone know that I got inspired to create a website (blog) sharing a lot of insights I have gained as both a cancer patient and a caregiver for a cancer patient. I put it in layman’s terms so that if someone finds themselves hearing those horrible words (“You/your loved one has cancer”) maybe they won’t have to start from scratch figuring out what to do next.

#59

My mom was a cheerful and healthy 72 year old widow who saw her doctor for blood pressure checks mostly. One week she asked him about a few black spots on the toes of one foot.

“Blood blisters” he pronounced them.

Mom is a retired RN which is good because she is educated and bad because she believes whatever doctors say. No questions.

The spots started to hurt and she went back. Twice. No different opinion from this guy.

I said, “Enough!” and scheduled a second opinion with someone I trusted. He took one look and then scheduled her immediately with the office of our top Vascular Surgeon.

The surgeon said, “I hope we can save your leg. This is gangrene.”

She had to have a vein rebuilt all along her leg. She made a good, if not painful, recovery. Her doctor had the nerve to stop in to see her.

He said “Your daughter gave me a call. She was quite angry.”

My mom smiled. “I don’t doubt it.”

What i said to him was “A 3rd year medical student can recognize gangrene!”

Our attorney said we could only sue if she DID lose her leg.

#60

I went to the doctor for my Scout Camp physical. I was the Scoutmaster of our Troop, and every Scout and leader must have a physical before going to camp.

I was expecting it to be routine checkup, but instead the doctor looked at an item on my blood test and got a worried look on his face.

“Your PSA is dangerously high,” he said.

PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. It goes high if you have an injury to your prostate or if you have an illness, which could range from an infection to cancer.

“I’ll pass you to go to camp,” he said, “but when you get back, we need to do some more tests.”

Well, I did the additional tests and eventually had a needle biopsy where they took three samples of tissue from my prostate and examined them. I was at school teaching when the doctor called. I went to the office to take the call. (Pre cell phone days.)

He said, “Well it looks like you have cancer.” My legs got weak and I suddenly had to sit down.

In the next month or so I had more tests and investigated various options for treatment. I noticed that radiation and cryogenics both said, “Results comparable to surgery.” So, surgery was the standard, and I elected to have surgery.

That was 29 years ago, and I’m still here. 29 years cancer free. All thanks to my Scout physical.

#61

I went to my doctor complaining about a couple symptoms I was having.

sharp and dull pain left side of my chest when I took a deep breath.
Upset stomach.
ache in my armpit left side.

He told me to stop sleeping on my left side and to start taking ibuprophen for my shoulder pain, and an acid reducer for my stomach.

2 weeks later I was walking with my grandfather in a really bright city.. he died in 1997.
Came to with a woman giving me chest compressions in the back of an ambulance.
Stent in my L.A.D.
Widowmaker heart attack.
then a pulmonary embolism 7 days later.
then my kidneys shut down from all the blood thinners they gave me.

I now have a new family doctor.

#62

So small I could hardly see it, but a dermatologist friend of mine noticed something along the side of my nose when we were chatting after working out at the gym. I had actually asked him about an itchy patch I had on my back, but he looked at it and said it was nothing. “But I’m a bit concerned about that little thing on the side of your nose,” he said. “Stop by my office after closing today and we’ll have a closer look.”

I did, and he did, and he took a biopsy of some cells and send it off for analysis. It came back positive for kind of skin cancer and so I was referred to a Mohs specialist in Washington DC for treatment.

Mohs is the process named after the doctor who invented it. It involves delicately cutting away sections of the infected area and inspecting them under the microscope until no more cancer cells are observed. At that point, the patient is patched up and sent on his way. It worked for me, and owing to the surgeon’s skill, you can hardly see anything at all where the procedure was done.

So there was something so teeny tiny that I never observed it myself. And because it was so small, the procedure to relieve me of the problem was also quickly performed and in a very small area. Had my friend not noticed that teeny tiny little bump, something small could have become quite big and perhaps even lethal.

#63

I once had an infection in my toe from a hang nail. It was my big toe, I was told to use very warm water and salt mix and soak my toe for at least 30 minutes 3 times a day. My toe got more infected, to the point I couldn’t touch it without sending, what felt like, electric shocks through my body all the way to my toe.

I went to emerge with my mom (I was 8), they immediately decided it needed to be dealt with. It was supposed to be a short procedure, where they cut off the infected nail and the infected part of my toe. It ended up being a procedure that they couldn’t freeze, I felt everything.

I was laying in the bed at emergency, and the doctors tried to freeze my toe, they checked if I felt anything, I screamed bloody murder while they put the freezing in and when they tested it, so they tried again, same thing so they tried again, I was so stressed out, I didn’t understand that they were trying to freeze it, I thought they were literally just going for a torture technique. I just wanted it done and over with, so when they tested if I could feel any pain, I sucked every bit of strength I had and said no through my tear smeared face.

They grabbed the big medical scissors and my mom held me down so I couldn’t see what was happening. as soon as they started to cut about half of my nail, I started screaming a sound, not normal to my own ears. My mom started to cry and begged me to calm down or else she was going to have to leave the room. So I did everything not to scream, I just sobbed endless tears until they had cut off half my toe nail and a good chunk of the (infected) skin. My toe was wrapped for several weeks and I was given pain meds to help with the pain.

thankfully I didn’t lose my toe or even half of it, it grew back completely.

to this day, that is most physically painful experience, and I’ve now had 4 kids. They were a breeze compared to my toe infection…

#64

I was having some chest pain for about 2 or three days. It seemed to come at random times. I thought I had pulled a chest muscle, ( which isn’t to unusual because my job required some heavy lifting and I was trying to get into shape again). Well one day when I was with my family visiting an old fort in our area the pain come back but this time I also had pain in both of my arms. My wife tried to convince to go to the ER. I just down played it and said I would go if it happens again. Well the next day at work it happened again. I went to the ER and the doctor ran some blood work and they came back and said I had a heart attack. I was surprised honestly I was just 40 years old and still could run a 16 minute 2 mile. They prepared an ambulance to take me to UT, (they would not let me drive myself).

I checked in that night and the next day or so,(sorry I can’t give an exact time frame, I had a lot going on in my mind). They ran a heart carth on me, which is kinda like watching a fishing line going through your veins. But anyway they said I had to much blockage and require a bypass surgery. Now I was getting a little worried. I have never had surgery before other than getting my wisdom teeth removed.

Long story short I had a triple bybass and they said one of the artery’s that was blocked was called the widow maker because if it gets blocked completely you are more or less done for.

That has been almost 8 months ago and I’m doing good. Other than having to listen to my wife telling me I need to listen to her more. Lol. But seriously I am thankful for her and all of the doctors that gave me a chance to enjoy my life and family for awhile longer.

#65

I’ll keep it short..

I never get colds or the flu. Woke up one day having trouble breathing and coughing. Ignored it for hours but it got worse. Finally I went to one of those walk in clinics. They did lots of test said I had the flu and sent me hone.

About a hour later I could hardly breath. Tougher it out for a hour and went to the er. I never go to the er so you know it was bad.

Soon as I got there they started hooking me up with tubes and oxygen.

Not long later they told me I had the flu and double pneumonia. They didn’t tell me then but I was having a heart attack too.

They loaded me up and transferred me to another hospital and put me in icu.

Later they did more test and told me I have blockages in my heart and needed open heart surgery.

I had quadruple heart surgery before I left.

Went to doctor for a bad cough and left after open heart surgery.

Having the flu saved my life.

#66

3 days after I received my first dose of vaccination, a tiny red dot popped up on the upper left part of my face.

In a short span of about a fortnight, it grew into a cherry like bump and this is how it’s been till now.

The doctor identified this condition as Hemangioma. (In case you’re planning to google this term, let me tell you that the pictures may seem triggering to some part of the audience)

In the words of my younger brother, I’m simply growing a baby tomato on my face, but this condition has turned out to be more than just a red bump for me.

Not really very significant, but for sure it seemed rare. Currently, this is all I could gather about Hemangioma-

It’s a tumor, but it’s not cancerous.
The red mass is formed when the blood vessels near the surface of the skin clump together.
It usually falls off/disappears on its own.
Apparently, it has nothing to do with the vaccination, but the vaccination day serves as a reference mark from where I can count its onset.
I’m taking the required medicines as prescribed by the doctor, but no improvement has been observed. The doctor asserted that if the meds don’t work, he might consider removing it surgically, and I don’t want that to happen.

Till now this lil fresh-red thing hasn’t been much of a nuisance for me, and the only ugly part is that it bleeds at times, mostly when I accidentally scrape it while I’m asleep.

Other than that, I’m okay with it.

#67

Somewhere around 1997, I noticed a small white “thingy” on the inside corner of my eye. Because I was living in the desert southwest (US), I thought my eye had grown a pearl of some sort as an adaptation to a desert irritant of dust or sand. A few months later back in Texas, I went to an eye doctor who said he had to refer me to a specialist. That person specialized in “diseases of the orbit.”

He operated to remove the “thingy” and told me it was NOT tangled with tiny blood vessels behind the eyeball, and he would send it to a lab for examination. He called a week later and said he had to refer me to an oncologist, which I knew meant “CANCER!”

So, I went to the oncologist during a long lunch break, expecting a brief talk with him. He told me he diagnosed me with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and that I needed to have chemotherapy. Somewhat already knowing what he might say in response, I asked “what if I don’t do it?” He replied that it would take over “any organ anywhere that it wants to, and it’s an awful way to die.”

“When would I start?”

“We have openings today in our infusion center, but you might want to eat lunch first if you haven’t already.”

I agreed to start after taking some time to find lunch, and after flooding with tears but somehow eating anyway, I returned for my first infusion of that nasty mix of poisons.

“Big things have small beginnings.”

I survived and am still cancer-free, after about 22 years.

*** Please don’t suggest any edits suggestive of the movie “Prometheus.”

#68

I had a persistent minor cough. I have had pneumonia before, so the doctor ordered chest x-rays, expecting to see evidence of some fluid in my lungs or possible other bronchial problems. The doctor didn’t note anything immediately obvious in the lungs, so off I went on my scheduled trip to Disneyland. Another day passed, then my doctor called with the radiology report. I explained that he would have to speak up because it’s noisy in Disneyland. His hesitant response? “Um… How did you do on the flight?”

Radiologists are trained to review the x-ray images before reading the patient’s case history. This is so they don’t focus on one thing and overlook something else. It turns out my heart was quite large. The doctor ordered me to go see a doctor near Disneyland before trying to fly home.

Pneumonia? No. Bronchitis? No. Congestive heart failure. At age 45. The doctor was not expecting this, because I was quite young for this, and had continued to be very active, including having just taken up indoor soccer.

A bunch of meds and a pacemaker, and I continue to be active – snowboarding, playing indoor soccer and futsal, and whitewater rafting. The only thing limiting my activity is COVID-19.

#69

I went to Dr because of numbness in my feet, that was later diagnosed as neuropathy, but while there dr said I was due for physical, and they had now changed and instead of chest xray for physical they now do CT scan. So I had a CT scan as routine and it came back with a spot in my chest. A couple more scans and they confirmed I had a tumor right in the middle of my chest the size of a goose egg. More tests referrals and scans ( cat scan inconclusive on if cancer or not, and biopsy not possible as they can’t get through my chest plate to sample ) and I ended up in the office of a cardio thoracic surgeon. A few weeks later I went in for surgery, the surgeon cut my chest open ( I’m told they do this with a power saw ) and removed the tumor. Surgeon said it was straight forward tumor not yet attached to my lungs or heart and they got it all. Later It was biopsied and I was told it was non-cancerous ( or benine in medical terms ). At a later follow with my surgeon he said they took my case to the hospital “tumor board” where many doctors help decide on further treatment….and they said I was cured….congratulations…no further treatment needed. This was 1 year ago almost to the day of this post and I’m feeling fine and other then a scar down the middle of my chest I’m fine and back to normal.

#70

I was involved in a car accident a year and a half ago. I was stopped in traffic and an uninsured driver with a suspended license hit me between 35–40 mph. I was driving my husband’s truck. Both vehicles were totaled.

I immediately had a bad headache but figured it was from the stress of the accident. I just wanted to go home.

I didn’t go to the hospital for two days, but I was having neck pain in addition to the headache that hadn’t gone away since the accident. They took X-rays. I waited. They came back with a wheelchair and wanted more X-rays. I thought it was weird; the whole wheelchair thing. They took different X-ray views. I waited. Again they came and were taking me for a CT scan. Next an MRI. They came back again. This time with a hard neck brace. The whole time, nobody is telling me anything except they were admitting me to the emergency room and asking me if I had wet myself during the accident.

They wheeled me back with the neck brace on and helped get me into a bed. I said I could do it myself but two nurses literally put me in the bed. Long story, I had four herniated discs in my cervical spine, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that turned into postconcussive syndrome, in which I still have issues with speech, memory and severe anxiety.

During the CT scan and MRI, they found lesions (2cm tumors, many of them) on each side of my thyroid. They took several biopsies, on several different days, of the lesions. The results were not cancer but because of their sizes, they will need to be monitored every year to watch for changes.

So basically a rear-end accident that I was initially more concerned about my truck, ended up changing my life in some very drastic ways. My medical bills were over $25,000.00. I Spent over 4 months in physical therapy twice a week. And I’ve had to have several epideral spinal injections for pain. Which will likely have to continue indefinitely throughout life.

But it also made me aware of the lesions that I otherwise may not have known about. Until it may have been too late, at some point. So on the flip, it was a blessing in disguise.

all in all I have learned that there is an equal balance of good and bad, for the most part. You often can’t have one without the other.

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