30 Times People Didn’t Think Their Symptoms Were A Big Deal, But They Were

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.