38 Folks Facing Cancer Share The Symptoms That Made Them Finally Visit A Doctor
Interview With ExpertNobody really thinks about their health and well-being until they end up getting sick. That’s when all of the symptoms that folks might have just been pushing under the rug begin to make sense. Of all the health conditions, cancer might be the most frightening, but it’s important to diagnose it sooner so that it can be treated.
That’s why the people on this list are sharing exactly how they figured out they had cancer. For most, it began with small symptoms that they showed a doctor, which is how they actually got diagnosed.
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Long story short, I was ready to have s*x with bf for the first time. Went to Planned parenthood to get set up. During the pelvic exam, she asked if I was sure I had never had s*x. I hadn't! She told me I had to go to a doctor and get testing. I'm like..okay. She was SO serious she called me that afternoon and daily for 3 days to be sure I understood I had to be seen.
I went, had imaging and they found a massive tumor in my intestines. Life changed. All better now!
Not me but my daughter. First time 11 years old pain in the shoulder. Dr. Dismissed it. Week or 2 later there was a bump. Turned out to be Ewing's sarcoma in her scapula. One year of chemo and an operation. 2 years of being tired, not growing, needing meds to get into puberty. At 14 she came down from her room to show me a massive bruise on her lower leg, It was Mother's Day, Within 24 hours she was in the hospital again, secondary AML, leukemia because of the chemo she received for the Ewing sarcoma. 8 months of hospital, stem cell transplant.
Unfortunately, the leukemia couldn't be cured. My beautiful Daisy died February 1 2022. Forever in my heart.
I actually went to get an MRI because I had a mass growing on the side of my head. I swear it was like it grew overnight. It was just a benign bone tumor called osteoma BUT when I got the scan back, turned out, hey! You also have brain cancer! Golf ball sized, grade 2 solitary fibrous tumor. Had a craniotomy in 2023. But I’ve had 2 recurrences in under a year. Radiation and all that fun stuff. Am currently in limbo as I await my next scan. Fingers crossed we zapped the mf!
There are many different types of cancer, and each has its own symptoms. There might be some overlap in what people experience, which can indicate that their body is dealing with a disease. As you might have noticed from this list, many patients were incredibly fatigued and tired, no matter what they were doing.
This sudden exhaustion is a clear sign that the body’s energy supply is being used up too quickly. Another thing that cancer cells do is attack the body’s immune system. That’s why people’s lymph nodes might swell up, some big enough that people can even feel them protruding from the skin.
Sometimes people don't actually believe that they can get a serious illness, which is why folks often disregard their symptoms until things get very bad. It’s important to understand that cancer is the leading cause of death globally, and nearly 10 million people lose their lives due to it. This shows that the disease is more common than folks would expect and that people should be more vigilant about their health.
The most common type is lung cancer, which claims around 1.80 million lives annually. The good news is that if people seek help early on, their treatment might put them into remission faster. That’s exactly why nobody should ignore random symptoms or pass them off as harmless problems.
Swollen lymph node in left side of neck. Zero pain, I noticed it shaving. Dr. Put me on antibiotics and a week later no change in swollen gland. So he ordered a biopsy and voila; cancer. 4 surgeries, 33 radiation treatments and 6 chemo treatments later and I am having catscans and pet scans this week to hopefully illustrate I am now disease free. All this since Jan 6th of this year.
Unbelievable fatigue. The kind that just knocks you to the ground. I would be trying to make dinner and sit on the kitchen floor crying because I was so tired. I could sleep all day and never feel energized.
For ovarian cancer, I also had pain where my ovaries were. I felt full even when I barely ate.
For cervical cancer, strange bleeding between periods.
Both cancers started with extreme fatigue.
Cystic acne on my neck so painful Id wake up from it was start of cervical cancer for me
Long story short- routine colonoscopy led to the discovery of rare cancer. I've said this before- don't avoid routine screenings recommended by doctors. If I hadn't had mine I would be dead. Now I'm cancer free and doing fine.
That’s great news.The Australian govt send out free bowel cancer screening test kits from age 45-74. 3 years ago mine came back positive and I had a polyp removed during the subsequent colonoscopy. Poking a plastic stick into your p*o to detect faecal blood could save your life.
Learning about a cancer diagnosis can be extremely difficult and scary, but there are a few things folks can do to cope. The first would be to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that one’s energy levels can improve and so that they can also deal with the stress and exhaustion of the illness and its treatment.
Getting enough time for rest and maintaining a daily routine can also help a person feel a sense of stability during such a tumultuous time. Experts say that it is important to spend time with family and friends, which can help one take their mind off heavier topics, and enjoy each moment.
To understand more about this, Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Jennifer Griggs, MD, MPH. She is a medical oncologist and health services researcher with a program focused on healthcare equity and patient-clinician communication.
She is also the medical director for Yerbba, which provides high-quality information for patients and their loved ones, and the program director of the Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium. Dr. Jennifer explained that “when going through cancer and its treatment, people need to have multiple ‘circles of support.’ A support system can help smooth the bumps that inevitably arise during cancer.”
“Creating an expanded circle of acquaintances who care and even volunteers through community groups will increase the likelihood that their various needs will be met. There are role shifts that can be hard for people to face. Asking for help is a sign of strength. When asking for help, be as specific as possible,” she added.
My words got weird, my memory got weird, I got a little wobbly walking and headaches. My primary thought I had MS with my age and symptoms.
Wham bam brain tumor-> brain cancer/temporal lobe epilepsy. Not all the way gone and on my second recurrence but still alive.
I know someone who started doing odd things like putting food into the oven still wrapped in the container. Diagnosed brain tumour. May she rest in peace
My gallbladder was filling with stones and I was on the waitlist for surgery. When visiting my doctor after an attack I said that every time I had one the lymph nodes in my neck blew up massively, look.
Five minutes later we’ve established I don’t know where the lymph nodes in my neck are and I have a referral for thyroid cancer.
Mine was absolutely nothing. Which is why it was scary. Someone told me my neck looked fat (i was skinny so just my neck) and i thought i better go get it checked. My wife is a doctor so she had many doctor friends who all told me it was likely just some benign thyroid hypertrophy. Nope, thyroid cancer at age 25.
40 now and thriving.
This disease doesn’t just affect a person’s body, but it also puts a lot of pressure on their mental health. That’s why cancer patients are urged to seek therapy to help them voice all of their difficult emotions and also have a support system. Many people also opt for group therapy so that they can listen to other people who are dealing with a similar situation.
These talking therapies are quite effective ways of treating the anxiety and panic that comes with such a diagnosis. Some people might prefer alternative therapy methods, which is why it’s also important to talk to a mental health professional and develop a customized plan that suits an individual's particular needs.
Dr. Jennifer also shared that a patient’s “outer circle is the medical care team, ideally a team they can trust. Everyone in their doctors’ offices is skilled and caring. If a patient calls to speak to a doctor and receives a phone call from a nurse, this is good care. Nurses stay in close touch with their physician colleagues and are often more experienced in symptom management.”
“Experts in healthcare don’t need to be liked, but they do need to feel they are trusted. If they feel they aren’t, they spend their energy not on caring for the patient, but on proving themselves. If a patient cannot trust a physician or other member of their team, figuring out why trust is not present and identifying ways that the team can earn their trust is essential,” she added.
My face and neck got very swollen and I thought at first I was just getting fat. What finally motivated me was that I started developing unexplained bruises on my chest and started having trouble breathing.
Turns out I had a huge tumor in my chest that had grown around my heart and was restricting blood flow to my head. That was 17 years ago now though and while I have some lung and hearing damage from the chemo I’m otherwise fine. .
Extreme fatigue. It got to the point where just getting out of bed was exhausting. I never felt well rested no matter what I did. Finally went to the hospital where the doctor instantly knew I had been suffering blood loss. He ordered multiple tests and they eventually found the growth in my stomach. I had been bleeding microscopically for months, possibly even years and my body was able adapt to it because it was so slow. My hemoglobin count was at 4.4. Doctor said it was a miracle I was still alive let alone conscious. They biopsied the growth and I was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer. That was 2 years ago. Multiple surgeries later and most of the cancer has been removed.
My cousins' husband was in his early 40s, and having bowel issues: bleeding and pain. This was Nov of 2018 or 2019, if I recall. He had been putting it off as he was a typical guy who didn't see doctors.
He went for a colonoscopy. They found stage 4 colon cancer, and it had spread *everywhere*.
Chemo allowed him to spend Christmas with his kids and family. He was buried just a couple months later, that Feb (2019 or 2020).
Please get screened. He left behind 2 kids unser 10.
It’s not easy to suddenly have one’s life turned upside down by a diagnosis like this. That’s why people need to take stock of what is important and give themselves grace. Dr. Jennifer shared that “there are many things that people can do to care for themselves, not only mentally and physically but also psychologically and spiritually.”
“An honest appraisal of what is most important, is sacred, will help serve as a north star for patients as they navigate the myriad decisions they have to make on a daily basis. [Thinking of what] they are able to do and what is sacred to them can help them devote their energy to those things that matter, not the things that other people think should matter.”
She also added that other things like “practicing compassionate self-talk is essential. Getting sufficient natural light and movement every day, getting sufficient sleep, eating colorful foods, and staying connected with others, laughing whenever possible, and connecting with who they are outside of their cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
My small dog was preoccupied with the left side of my chest and began over a period of weeks pawing, sniffing and eventually jumping on the one side. I had no feeling of discomfort or pain, but eventually discovered a lump and my physician confirmed it as stage 1 cancer. My dog knew something had changed by smelling the site and I would have never bothered to check otherwise (an otherwise healthy man with no family history of cancer).
Man's best friend.
I'm posting this on behalf of my wife, who didn't make it.
We had a 1 year old at the time who was not sleeping through the night, so the fatigue (more so than usual) was missed and dismissed; she just tried to power through with coffee. The really big trigger for her to get seen repeatedly, was a funny feeling in her throat - she said she had a dream that she swallowed one of her Bluetooth earbuds, but when she woke up she still had both, but also had a sore throat. That sore throat kept getting worse (during flu season), and the first couple of times she went to the ER they just ran flu / covid tests and shrugged when those came back negative. It got so bad that she had a hard time swallowing food, but she still tried to push through it, until it was then hard for her to drink liquids.
Mind you this was only a period of like, two weeks. Long story short she had Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and the thing in her throat was actually a fungal infection because her immune system was whack. Between her diagnosis December 11th 2023 and her passing due to chemo complications January 7th 2024, it wasn't even a month. She was only 42.
Trust your gut instincts if something is wrong, and don't ever feel bad about asking for more testing. It's your life, not theirs.
I was having surgery, and I had bloodwork done the day before admission. My leukemia was found then. I had zero clue, and my WBC were over 100,000 and platelets were 750,000. You’d think I would have noticed something was off?!? It was my first time having an illness really (apart from colds, flu, strep), and it’s incurable. Lucky me!
Platelet count would go down not up, unless they heard wrong maybe 750 and 100 for WBC.
We should be grateful that all the folks on this list are brave enough to share their stories so that they can help other people recognize the warning signs. It’s important to pay attention to any weird symptoms you might be experiencing and go for a check-up early on rather than wait for things to get worse.
If you have any similar stories, please share your experience. Who knows, it might help someone else.
Not me, but a close friend of mine: had what she thought was flu, couldn't shake it. After 2 weeks of feeling like absolute s**t she went to the GP. The GP suspected a UTI that had turned into a kidney infection and told her to go straight to A&E. There, they took blood sample and found she had extremely low white blood cell count. Turns out she had Stage 3 non-hodgkin lymphoma.
She was only 31 when she got diagnosed, had 6 months getting absolutely blasted with treatments and now she is in the clear!!
Then she quit her job, left her boyfriend, went to San Francisco for a month, came back and adopted an elderly cat. Now she's very into wild swimming.
A hard area on my left breast.
It caught my attention in the shower. It wasn't a defined lump, but noticeably hard to the touch than the rest of the breast.
Diagnosed with stage 2, grade 3, triple negative breast cancer.
guys, gals, non-binary pals, please check your chest. All genders have breast tissue.
Edit: I was 34 by the way, so don't let any doctor tell you you're too young for a cancer... you know what's normal for your body... if something is not normal, advocate for yourself!
by late boss had a bump, that her husband found. Yes. double mastectomy later, all clear. one Year later, faints at work, brain cancer. 18 months later, we attended her funeral. she was 3 days short of her 40th. Cancer is not your friend, and it takes no prisoners.
Blood in my poop and loose poop and pain in my butt for a year or so , got a colonoscopy and have Stage 3C rectal cancer just starting treatment now.
Not me, but family member: 38 years old and exhibiting signs of colon cancer - weight loss, extreme fatigue, bleeding. Recognizing something was "off", went to multiple doctors and was told it was anemia, anxiety, and hemorroids. By the time they convinced a doctor to do a colonoscopy (which hasn't been done because they were "too young" for it to be colon cancer), it had spread to stage 4.
Sharing as a cautionary tale to advocate for yourself until you get the tests you need. You know your body and if something isn't right, ask questions, advocate for yourself, and don't be talked into believing it's "just anxiety" just because you don't fit the common age/demographic/whatever for cancer diagnosis.
If you have bleeding you are sure isn't haemorrhoids, see a doctor straight away. In the reverse, my dad recently had his bowel screening (faecal test done at home, free to over 60s in Australia) and it came back with blood in sample. He is sure it is haemorrhoids, but doctor has ordered colonoscopy anyway (as he should, that's the point of the screening).
I had a 9 month “period” that was incredibly heavy and got an U/S of my uterus. Turned out I had an endometrial tumor. I was given progesterone for about a year than they removed my uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, etc. I had a Stage 1 Grade 1 tumor. About 3 months later I had some additional bleeding and learned I had a recurrence at the surgical site. I then experienced the joy of pelvic radiation. I got a clean scan in April and now I’m just “waiting and seeing” trying to not live in fear of a return. Definitely getting my checks for other cancers (breast, colon, etc). And grateful it was discovered so early. Get your checks ya’ll!
Had a chronic choking feeling in my throat. Found a tumor on my thyroid. Choking feeling didn’t go away after surgery. Turns out it was chronic sinusitis and unrelated to the thyroid cancer. .
Chronic sinusitis is bad enough, but I'm glad in this case it led to discovery of the cancer. Who knows how much worse it would have gotten otherwise!
I’m cancer free now, but my main symptom was coughing blood / persistent cough. I was a smoker, so wrote it off as a smokers cough for over a year and didn’t bother going to the doctors about it until the blood got really regular. Turns out I had a rare type of hormone related tumour on my lung called a neuroendocrine carcinoid that’s absolutely nothing to do with smoking. Luckily I was treated with surgery only, so I had my right lung taken out in 2023 and that was the end of it.
After I would lightly run my fingers through my beard I would see a smear of blood on my fingers.
Primary care doc referred me to a dermatologist who cut a basal cell carcinoma off my face. Basal cell carcinoma rarely spreads so the hope was no further treatment was needed.
Eight years later I felt a small skin bump in the same area. Went to the dermatologist to get it checked. That was fine but she asked me to take my shirt off for a skin check so long as I was there. Took less than five seconds for the doctor to note something that didn't look good on my shoulder. Got it biopsied and it's melanoma. Melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer.
Get your skin checked folks. These both were areas that are hard for you to check yourself. Find it early and get it removed and your odds are excellent.
Especially important to get skin checked in Australia, even if you try to slip, slop, slap everyday. Any change could be cancer.
I just had an odd little tickle in my throat. Thought I might have had a chip from some dental work create a cyst. Turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma of the right tonsil. I'm about 4 years since finishing treatment and everything looks good.
It was my husband, but he kept complaining about stomach pain and insisting it was constipation. I made him go to the hospital because it didn't seem right. Found out his had a large mass in his intestines and was diagnosed with a super rare gastro cancer called GIST. It's a radiation resistant form of cancer and treatment consists of surgery and chemo. Going through round 4 right now...
Went for ordinary mamogram after being reminded by my doctor during a physical. Found mass and had biopsy. Was so small it was stage 1. Had lumpectomy and a course of meds and I am fine. I will never miss another routine check up. Ever.
I had a sharp pain in my left breast. I went to my doctor about the pain. She sent me for a mammogram and an ultrasound they found a growth in my right breast. It was found super early, the growth was 6mm.
Weird small patch of dry skin on the end of my nose, after a shower, every now and again I’d take the top of it and d it would bleeds want a mole so I figured, weird.
Had an accident and broke my nose, so a skin specialist on weekend cover who spotted it and referred for a biopsy. A bunch of surgery later I’m free of skin cancer.
I’m going ‘under the knife’ next week to have a BCC removed from the tip of my nose. I found it one day when scratching an itch. I knew straight away what it was and had it confirmed a short time later during my annual skin check. Please have annual skin checks especially in high risk countries like Australia,
Was losing weight uncontrollably as well as seeing some blood in the toilet after #2 combined with pain while going. Colonoscopy found a tumor. Luckily it was real early stage so removing it was the treatment, by the time i knew i had it, it was already gone.
As I’ve said previously, The Australian Govt sends out free bowel cancer screening tests from age 45-74. In 2021 it is estimated that just under 5300 died in Australia from bowel cancer.
Severe fatigue, night sweats, loss of appetite, excessively quick weight loss, low blood pressure (while being diagnosed with hypertension). When I say fatigue, I mean I would be mid sentence and fall asleep because I had no energy left. I would walk to the bathroom and needed 30 ,minutes to recover from the exertion. Then my throat started to feel like I was swallowing daggers and my lymph nodes started to swell so I figured I had strep throat again. All the other symptoms felt explainable, and even though I had lost my appetite and was losing weight, I personally wasn't seeing those, it was others that brought it up to me. Finally went to urgent care for what I thought was strep, turns out I had a rare type of leukemia.
These symptoms came on quick. Within a month of the fatigue which was the first symptom, the others started happening quite rapidly. Doctors said I was days away from dying if I hadn't come in. On the 21'st of this month, I will have hit my 2 year mark since my SCT and I am doing great.
I had been feeling some fatigue in the evening but that didn't cause me to see a doctor. My cancer was caught only because I needed to renew some prescriptions and the doctor offered to do a physical exam since it has been a little over a year since my last. She felt something in my chest that shouldn't be there and that's how I learned I have kidney cancer.
My husband was having migraines, anxiety, and vision issues, he thought his prescription was just getting worse or something was occurring due to a sports injury he had in his eye. Went to the eye doctor. The eye doctor took a look and pretty much immediately sent him to the ER to rule out a brain tumor.
He passed away from glioblastoma 2.5 years later. It’s random and untreatable but he suffered with severe anxiety and vision issues for longer than he needed to before he was diagnosed.
I felt a lump in my abdomen, only when relaxed and lying down. Went get it checked out, ultrasound then biopsy showed it to be a large (12 x 18 cm) metastatic melanoma.
So, if you notice something strange in your body, go and get it checked out!
I have a lump on my arm my doctor thinks is only a sebaceous cyst, but the ultrasound showed it as atypical presentation, so waiting for a biopsy. When I first noticed it, it was under the skin enough that I could only notice it by pressing on the spot (no pain). Now it is like a hard raised lump with some discolouring. Still no pain and it grew very slowly, so I'm optimistic about the outcome.
My lefty was firm and then I got diagnosed stage 2a testicular cancer nonseminoma, meaning it's more aggressive at spreading. They scheduled me for orchiectomy and port surgery a month apart now I'm on my 3rd infusion week.
My mom found out she had kidney cancer with a random scan. It was fine and they ended up removing the whole kidney. The next place that her type of cancer could go is her lungs and we just found out that it had spread there about a month ago.
I would say she was healthy and we never saw it coming, but cancer doesn’t care.
Edit: thank you for the up doots, although we are talking about a disease that doesn’t care if you’re an infant, child, young adult, parent, it grandparent. It kills without disregard. Everyone I’ve ever known has died of cancer. It’s made me numb. She is having immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy. She had an infusion 3 days ago and is currently in bed not feeling well.
I’m an alcoholic(2 years sober) and I’m going to die young. I wish I could take their sickness away and put it on me.
Double edit: s**t my grandmother(mom’s mom) had breast cancer at 97 and they removed it and she’s still kicking. Lmao that was 2 years ago.
Not me, my MIL. She had an annoying bump on her bellybutton. She ignored it for probably 2 years (ignored it for a while, then covid hit and she didn’t want to trouble her doc). Finally went in to have it looked at in 2021, doc suspected umbilical granuloma (totally benign thing) going into the appointment, but swiftly confirmed that she in fact had pancreatic cancer. What she had is called a sister Mary Joseph nodule. Her cancer at that point was very advanced and had spread to her lymph nodes and other organs in her abdomen.
She passed away three weeks ago, 3.5 years after being given 6 months. Do not ignore things that are odd but seem insignificant.
My nan ignored symptoms for too long and they found a tumour on her appendix originally, but it had spread to her other organs by the time she received treatment and died not long after. My dad is very similar to her, hates going to the doctor, despite always worrying about one thing or another. The thing I am worried about at the moment though is very different- I think he has early dementia. Despite always trying to keep his mind active etc to try and prevent it, he never went back when the doctor suggested doing a test for it about 18 months ago. If he started meds then I'm sure he would be much better off now.
Unfortunately no chronic symptoms, but had had two p*o-related events--coffee ground stool and bright red Carrie bowl--that both had nothing come back except exorbitant ER costs.
Since my family has a variety of bumtrubs, I asked for a colonoscopy to see what could literally be up.
Turns out it was a stage 2, mildly malignant tumor with nothing really appearing in my blood panel.
The Crimson Event was probably a semi-unrelated event with a polyp bursting.
A surgery removing 16" of large intestine later and I'm fine, having beaten back The Crab until another day.
During COVID I lived in sweatpants. Coming out of COVID and we were going somewhere "nice" for the first time in forever so I put my jeans on, did them up and they fell straight to the ground, I'd lost a significant amount of weight without really noticing. I had what I thought was toothache but was actually tongue cancer. I no longer have a tongue and hopefully no longer have cancer. It'll be 5 years next May.
I had a scaly spot on my leg that itched like crazy,, so went to have it checked out. The doctor thought it was nothing, but did a biopsy anyway. I had melanoma, and was sent to a surgeon to have it excised. The original spot was about the size of a pencil eraser; they took a piece the size of a quarter. I'm a 14 year survivor. I hate to think what could have happened if I hadn't had it checked.
Nothing. I had absolutely zero symptoms at all. Went to my obgyn for my annual and she did a routine breast exam and found the lump. Five years in remission and I still bless her name. :)
During COVID I lived in sweatpants. Coming out of COVID and we were going somewhere "nice" for the first time in forever so I put my jeans on, did them up and they fell straight to the ground, I'd lost a significant amount of weight without really noticing. I had what I thought was toothache but was actually tongue cancer. I no longer have a tongue and hopefully no longer have cancer. It'll be 5 years next May.
I had a scaly spot on my leg that itched like crazy,, so went to have it checked out. The doctor thought it was nothing, but did a biopsy anyway. I had melanoma, and was sent to a surgeon to have it excised. The original spot was about the size of a pencil eraser; they took a piece the size of a quarter. I'm a 14 year survivor. I hate to think what could have happened if I hadn't had it checked.
Nothing. I had absolutely zero symptoms at all. Went to my obgyn for my annual and she did a routine breast exam and found the lump. Five years in remission and I still bless her name. :)
