40+ Weird Signs That Lead To A Cancer Diagnosis
To start, it is not to say that all of these signs that ended up in cancer diagnosis are necessarily symptoms of cancer. These are simply subtle changes people noticed in their bodies that made them decide to go to the doctor. They are their own personal experiences that eventually lead to a cancer diagnosis.
Fooling Around
“I was fooling around in a mall as a kid. So My dad grabbed me by the neck to make me behave. He felt a lump on my neck and immediately began to get nervous. We went to the doctor the next day, caught the cancer before it spread and was able to surgically remove it about a month later. Got super lucky.” – @sockfeetlover
Not A Blocked Mammary Gland
“My sister noticed a small painful lump in her breast shortly after having her second child. Doctor diagnosed a blocked mammary gland. A couple weeks later it still wasn’t gone. Again doc said blocked gland. Months later it’s still not gone and she insists on getting a second opinion. Stage 3 breast cancer. Double mastectomy immediately followed by months of agonizing radiation and chemo only to find out it’s now stage four. She’s been stable for a few years but now it’s spreading again and we don’t know how long we have with her. Trying to be as positive as possible.” – @kidgorgeous19
The Headache That Wouldn’t Go Away
“My 33 year old husband was diagnosed with inoperable glioblastoma (most aggressive brain cancer) in January 2019, when he was 31. What caused him to get a check, was persistent headache that didn’t go away with paracetamols and sleep. We discovered the tumours after taking an MRI.” – @syarkbait
Not Fat and Not Allergies
“My head and neck area became very swollen. At first I thought I was just getting fat, so I worked out a lot and ate better. This did not help. I also went to a local clinic and they thought it might be an allergic reaction and gave me steroids, which also didn’t help. The thing that finally made me go to the emergency room and not leave until I had an answer is that I started to develop unexplained bruises on my chest. Turns out I had a huge tumor in my chest which had grown around my heart and was compressing the superior vena cava so blood couldn’t flow back down from my head. Not great!” -@eskimopsy212
An Unrelated Lump
“Funnily enough, it was a totally unrelated lump. “Nope, that lump is fine, just a lipoma. However, we found another lump in the corner of your x-ray and we need to biopsy it”.” -@something_crass
The Not-So-Subtle Stroke
“My mum had something pretty close to this. Had a stroke, so lots of scans, one of them just caught the edge of something. Tennis ball sized mass in her chest. Whack. Turned out it wasn’t anything particularly nasty but it seemed crazy she never knew it was there.” -@mediumbeansprout
Abnormally Heavy Periods
“Super heavy periods that would last for 10 or more days. Got an iud to help control bleeding. Actually hemorrhaged so bad the iud came out. Endometrial Cancer, huge tumor in my uterus. Ladies, it’s not normal to need a tampon and pad at the same time. It’s not normal to need to change them every 10 minutes or even every hour. An average period is 2-3 Tablespoons, just for reference. Sorry if TMI.” -@Icewaterforall
This Is Crazy
“On Christmas Eve 2018, my Dad lost the ability to talk except for the phrase “this is crazy.” Called paramedics because we thought he’d had a stroke. Got him to the hospital where the imaging showed a brain tumor on the outside edge of his brain. The swelling caused him to have a seizure. He was transferred to a bigger local hospital. They did full body scans because it’s pretty rare to just have brain cancer- usually it’s a secondary for another cancer site. We got lucky in that it was the sole spot. Went through a craniotomy and 5 rounds of high dose inpatient chemo, and he’s one year in remission!” -@ashliek
My Cat Found My Cancer
“My cat has always like to lay on me and “knead” part of my body with her paws. For 7 years it was random, various parts of my body. Then for about 6 months she started to focus on one spot on my chest. At first I chalked it up to her wanting to be closer to my face, but after a couple months I noticed that the spot she was focused on had become very tender. Then I felt a small lump in that spot. Due to my (relatively young age), it took me a couple of months to convince one of my doctors that it was a potential issue, but eventually I got tested and had a pretty giant tumor in that spot (plus other tumors elsewhere).” -@plum_awe
