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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.
This post may include affiliate links.
#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
Bernd Herbert 3 months ago
Poor girl, but the last sentence...really? How about thanking the medical team and all of our medical scientific advances?
RELATED:
#2
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.
#3
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?
Bored Birgit 3 months ago (edited)
We wish you all the best! May there be better times in your future. 💖 To my knowledge cysts have to be cut out completely including their shell.
#4
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.
Lenore Jean Jones 3 months ago
I've never known anyone be told about stage 4 cancer so coldly. Incredible.
#5
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.
#6
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.
#7
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!
#8
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.
#9
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.
#10
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.
#11
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.
#12
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.
#13
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.
#14
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.
#15
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.
Shine Chisholm (they/ them) 3 months ago
My kid woke up one morning and said, "Mom, I found a lump." He (AFAB) was 12, and his breasts weren't very big, so the lump was really obvious. I took him to the walk-in clinic for his pediatrician, and they said it was mastitis and prescribed antibiotics. By that appointment, the breast was warm to the touch. The next morning, the entire breast was hot. I called his doctor back, and they got us into the breast cancer clinic the same day for an ultrasound. The radiologist acknowledged the mass but refused to do a biopsy because of my son's age. We walked across the street to the emergency room. Within a few hours, he was in surgery. It was an infection, not cancer, but it got big fast.
#16
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
Dianellian 3 months ago (edited)
In Australia, please go every year. We have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.
#17
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.
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
I was very lucky that Australian schools do a free hearing and vision test when you start school. They found my vision wasn't good in one eye- I hadn't noticed because I didn't know different. Turned out to be a optic nerve pit (hole) on my retina that was allowing cerebrospinal fluid to enter, effecting my vision. I was sent for laser surgery (first ever on a child) to seal the hole. There was still fluid caught in the bubble, but it wasn't obstructing my vision so they left it. I did need additional surgery when I was in my 20s because the hole opened a little and the fluid was affecting my vision now. That time they used a tool my surgeon devised himself to cut the hole further to let the fluid out before lasering shut again. One of the things that I was upset about after the first surgery was that I would never be able to go bungy jumping, because I had much higher risk of getting retinal detachment. I also wasn't allowed to play squash (racket ball) when my school went to a sports
#18
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.
#19
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.
#20
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.
Kalikima 3 months ago
When I was 11 I started having gallbladder pain, but being as I was so young, no one thought to look for it, and it was just passed off as bad gas since it only happened occasionally. Fast forward 3 years, and I'm getting the attacks more frequently. I hadn't seen a doctor for it in years, it was basically being treated with otc gas meds and massage (my grandma was a massage therapist and thought everything could be treated with massage). We were coming home from a family vacation when I got the worst attack yet, I could barely speak or see, and I begged my mom to take me to the ER. They did a blood test and asked a bunch of questions, and by this point they'd given me something for the pain so I was better.. theywere talking about sending me home, but the doctor decided to do a quick ultrasound of my gallbladder "just in case". Apparently it was so full of stones and sand, he didn't know how I was walking. I had surgery the next morning, and was fine by the next week.
#21
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!
#22
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.
Debby Keir 3 months ago
Saw a woman in A+E - she was a teacher at a nursery school, and one of the kids had bitten the tip of her thumb about 2 weeks before. She too had gas gangrene (Clostridium perfringens) and had to have her thumb amputated.
#23
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.
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
In Australia people over 50 (I think) are sent a test kit each year for free where you take a faecal sample and post it for testing. Then if anything shows up on the test you get a colonoscopy.
#24
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.
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
Endometritis makes it harder to get pregnant but not impossible. My cousin has suffered with it for a long time, but is now pregnant with her second child. My best friend's sister also has endometriosis and her baby is nearly 1. She had about 6 years of trying to get pregnant.
#25
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
#26
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.
Mere Cat 3 months ago
With my personality, it would have been torture to wait until Monday after hearing such a strong order to see my doctor. Knowing there was something big they're not telling me. Then again, I'm oddly wired and thrive on blunt, raw information. I am glad that the ER doctor was in tune with the mindset of this patient, especially after hearing so many stories of the opposite.
#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
#28
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.
Lila Allen 3 months ago
Been there. My sweet cat accidentally bit me and with 24 hours my whole arm was swollen and it took 3 days of IV antibiotics to get better. Cat bites are an immediate go to the hospital
#29
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…
Erica Knapp 3 months ago
I'm not a superstitious person, but a few weeks before my mom passed, she also told me about a dream where she saw her mother
#30
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.
What do you think ?
Jess Smith 3 months ago (edited)
I don't know! I should've known I'd get intrusive thoughts, but I ignored it! And if this is any sign, the chapped lips and weird feelings I'm getting are a sign of brain cancer!
Load More Replies... Nadine Debard 3 months ago
Long story short, I felt mild numbness in my legs at 7 months pregnant and even if it felt normal during pregnancy I couldn't brush it off for a whole weekend. Went to do blood tests, then to ER. Happend I had a severe preeclampsy and would have been dead within a week. No symptoms, no pain, nothing. Just a heavy foot. Everything went well, prema baby just began preschool.
Mere Cat 3 months ago
While taking the bandaid off from my flu shot, in the back of my arm, I incidentally noticed a mole with small dark brown mickey mouse ears. The whole mole was just 4 mm, symptomless. I got it checked: melanoma, thankfully hadn't spread anywhere. Just as a reminder to check your moles!
Jess Smith 3 months ago (edited)
I don't know! I should've known I'd get intrusive thoughts, but I ignored it! And if this is any sign, the chapped lips and weird feelings I'm getting are a sign of brain cancer!
Load More Replies... Nadine Debard 3 months ago
Long story short, I felt mild numbness in my legs at 7 months pregnant and even if it felt normal during pregnancy I couldn't brush it off for a whole weekend. Went to do blood tests, then to ER. Happend I had a severe preeclampsy and would have been dead within a week. No symptoms, no pain, nothing. Just a heavy foot. Everything went well, prema baby just began preschool.
Mere Cat 3 months ago
While taking the bandaid off from my flu shot, in the back of my arm, I incidentally noticed a mole with small dark brown mickey mouse ears. The whole mole was just 4 mm, symptomless. I got it checked: melanoma, thankfully hadn't spread anywhere. Just as a reminder to check your moles!
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