6. Started with a sore knee.
My knee was always sore. It didn’t hurt, just a dull ache. I thought I might’ve injured it playing sports, so I decided to schedule an appointment with an orthopedist to get checked out. He takes an x-ray, sees what he calls a “calcium deposit” on the film and sends me home.
The next day I’m at work and he calls me there after getting my work number from my parents. He tells me that he scheduled an appointment for me at the local hospital for the next day. I had just started back to school so I told him I’d rather wait but he told me in a serious tone that I needed to go. I went to the hospital and found the Dr. I needed to see in Orthopedic Oncology. That’s when I knew it was much more serious than I thought.
Turned out I had a rare tumor called chondromyxoid fibroma. I had to have an allograft done to excise it but it was successful and thankfully I have not had any complications since.
7. Don’t ignore any lumps, people!
Felt a lump. Ignored it for a little since it didn’t really hurt. When jogging it started to hurt. Went to doctor. They did an ultrasound.
8. Don’t wait three months! Get checked now!
started bleeding a tiny bit every day… The doctor thought it was a side-effect of the birth-control shot I got, so we agreed I should wait and see if it would stop after 3 months. Then I started feeling pain when I had sex and after a while, I also started bleeding during sex. Went for a check-up at the doctor, who couldn’t find anything wrong with my lady-parts, so she sent me to a gynecologist just to be on the safe side.
First thing gynecologist says is something along the lines of “I see you never got a cervical screening, that’s not very smart of you”
I am aware of that, which I tell her, and she repeats herself several times while I’m there. She starts examining me and tells me there’s a polyp in my uterus and something on my cervix, so she takes some samples of the tissue and tells me I will need to have the polyp removed at the hospital.
Four days later, she calls me and tells me the polyp in my uterus was a harmless one, but the changes on my cervix are cancer.
From then on it, all happened so damn fast, and here I am almost four months later – the only lady-parts left is my ovaries and most of my vagina. I say most of it because they actually removed a few centimeters during the surgery.
They also removed some lymph nodes close to the uterus during the surgery and tested them – one of them had a tiny bit of cancer cells, so I had to have chemo and radiation too.
From now on, I’m making sure all my female friends and relatives know how important those screening tests are… The media tells us almost daily to be aware of breast cancer, but I honestly didn’t know how important it is to also be aware of whats going on with the lady-parts.
9. “Terrifying thing is how ordinary the symptoms were.”
Leukemia survivor here.
The terrifying thing is how ordinary the symptoms were. I didn’t feel sick. I was a little tired. I had a weird rash on my legs. My lips were chapped and bleeding, which I blamed on the dry winter air.
What got me to seek medical attention was when my roommate found a large bruise on the back of my arm where I was sure I hadn’t injured myself. She talked me into seeing a doctor. I was afraid I was going to get laughed out of the doctor’s office for seeking medical attention for a rash and a bruise.
My roommate probably saved my life. Leukemia is a very fast growing cancer and even a week’s delay would have lowered my survival odds.
The bruise, the rash, and the chapped bloody lips were all from internal bleeding. The cancer cells had crowded out the platelets (the cells responsible for clotting blood). My blood was so thin that I was bleeding internally, and would have been in serious danger if I’d gotten a substantial cut. My immune system was non-existent, for the same reason–the cancer cells had crowded out the healthy immune system cells. I am lucky to be alive
10. He went to the same doctor for a year!
First time I started itching my legs like crazy. At the end of the day my socks would be red with blood. My doctor said it was dry skin and to moisturize. Next it was a pain in my chest when doing dips, so I stopped doing those. Then it hurt bench pressing, but not that bad. Next was a loss of appetite and just generally feeling shitty. One particularly shitty day I went back to the doctor and told him I was feeling shitty. Once I said chest pain suddenly it wasn’t just dry skin. I noticed that it had been a year to the day since I first saw him. The next day my mom and sister found me at University and got me to a surgeon that afternoon. The next few months were doctors appointments, chemo, and radiation for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Second time a year later I felt a hard lump underneath my armpit. Got in to see the oncologist right away, biopsied, and came back as Hodgkin’s again.
Third time I felt a hard lump at the base of my neck. Hodgkin’s again.
Fourth time was several years later, and I saw a red dot on my shirt. Thought it was a spot of spaghetti sauce since that’s what I had for lunch. The next day I saw an identical spot. Went into the bathroom and was able to squeeze a drop of blood from my nipple. That got me a quick appointment with my hematologist, who got me a quick appointment with a breast surgeon. None of the diagnostic stuff worked, seeing as how I am a man, so they basically said it was a mastectomy or nothing. If it was something, the treatment would be a mastectomy anyways, so I had it taken out. That turned out to be DCIS, which is like pre-breast cancer.
Fifth time I was having a dental cleaning and mentioned a pain in my cheek. The dentist said it looked like a really bad canker. At my next hematologist appointment when she asked “is there anything else?” I mentioned it. She had a quick look and booked me an appointment for an ENT. He took a quick look and said “so it might be cancer” and I had a biopsy in the time it took for him and his team to get ready. That was squami cell carcinoma. I was stage 1, but because of my medical history I got the stage 4 treatment. Fortunately the lymph nodes they removed didn’t show anything, so hopefully that’s all behind me now.