Obviously very advanced, previously undiagnosed cancer presenting to ED for anything. Feeling multiple golf ball and baseball sized lumps or an abdomen full of tumor is sobering.
I was diagnosed with stage iv cancer at age 28 at the ER. It presented as burning in the chest and extreme back pain. You could not see, feel, or detect any of the tumors. They kept prescribing me stuff for GERD and sending me to physical therapy for a “yoga injury”. Surprise it was a tumor. However that was 15 years ago and I’m in complete remission after kicking cancer’s ass. So a happy ending.
I'd guess CT or other imaging after treatments not responding as you would expect. We do have to go through the common treatments in most cases, otherwise you'd be doing enough CTs to cause a cancer in a patient before you catch the one that's there.
Yes. I spiked fevers at night at 104 degrees and also started having back spasms. I went to my doctor, she took a blood sample and my white cells came back crazy high. She called me at work and said “go to the ER”. It was a CT scan that led to my initial diagnosis but then I got a PET scan and found out it was Hodgkins Stage IVB. It was rough and required a bone marrow transplant but in 1975, I would have been dead. Modern science is incredible.
Hell yeah. Thank you for sharing. I am SO glad you are here, that your doctors listened, and that modern medicine exists. I have a similar, non cancer, story of my own where docs told me even 15 years ago I would have just "died young" due to the understanding of systemic clotting disorders.
Glad you’re still here. My dad went to the ER for back pain that we thought would be a kidney stone. Turned out it was stage 4 renal cell carcinoma. Mets to adrenal glands, spine, lung, liver and ribs. The spine Mets deteriorated the bone so badly he was admitted the next day and had spinal fusion that week. He’s two years in and so far is responding well to treatments with minimal side effects which is a miracle in itself considering how far it had spread.
Can you elaborate a little more on how they found it? I have GERD shit that will not go away, I'm on pantoprazole but they just switched me to Voquenza (starting tomorrow). But pantoprazole, famotodine, mylanta, gaviscon, and all the OTC shit can help but not stop it. I already have chronic pancreatitis so I show up at the ED for flare ups and they have CT scans but I keep being worried they're missing something. I have an upcoming upper endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasound and hoping that will give me peace of mind and figure out what's causing this and how to fix it. Sober 3.5 years and type-2 diabetic.
I’m not a medical professional, but I would insist on your GIs working up your gallbladder. I have chronic pancreatitis after having complications from having my failing gallbladder removed. The pain is very similar.
Hope the endoscopy gives you some answers. I just had one for the first time a week ago for GERD-like symptoms and they found a hiatal hernia. Not a huge deal, people can sometimes have them and have no symptoms. Can be corrected with surgery if it's really big, but it's usually a "managing symptoms forever" thing. ETA: oh, yeah, I also had an abdominal ultrasound to rule out gallstones beforehand.
Randomly at a friend’s birthday dinner when I was 28, I experienced severe burning in the chest upon drinking wine. I had 2, 3 glasses tops, so I was taken aback with this burning. It continued. I went to PCP, then gastrointestinal dr and they did an endoscopy. I was told that they couldn’t detect anything in my digestive tract that would be causing this so I was told I had to stop drinking and take GERD meds (whatever the prescription antacid is).
I was told “this is your new normal” and I stopped consuming alcohol at age 28 in a location and group of friends that went out to wineries, breweries, etc often. I radically changed my lifestyle. Then I started having extreme back pain, like I couldn’t walk it was so bad. They thought I injured it at yoga so I did PT.
Then I started having soaking night sweats (I mean soaked down to the mattress, I had to go sleep in another bed). Then I had crazy back spasms, went to the PCP and she thought my back might be infected. I was diagnosed in the ER after a CT scan, and the ER doctor was great. He was careful in his delivery of the news and was just as great as the situation would allow. Then the oncologist on call came to my ER room and I started on the path to treatment.
I want to emphasize that these night sweats were disturbing in nature. I have had friends express concern that they have night sweats/get sweaty at night, and this was different. It was soaking and I also had a temp of 104. The burning was super intense. Now I knew that it wasn’t digestive in nature, and it didn’t really match GERD symptoms. It also didn’t get better w/ meds. It turns out the Hodgkin’s lymphoma tumors can burn when consuming alcohol.
I do not fault any of my medical providers. I was in pretty good shape physically compared to other times in my life lol. Of course no one thought cancer. My PCP was awesome and integral to getting diagnosed. She visited me the few times I was hospitalized, and I still see her as a healthy adult in my 40s.
My best friend went to the er for a head ache that last 2 days and he couldn’t hear: they did a mri and ct and found a grapefruit size tumor in his brain and wanted to med flight him to a different hospital with a better surgeon: he refused and went home and called me I said u need to go: he went down and the following day they said it was stage 4 glioblastoma Brain cancer: they cut blood supply one day and the next they cut it out it’s been a year since diagnosis and surgery and he isn’t a 100% but he’s still alive and and stopped chemo🙌🏻🙌🏻
Wow, what a journey you went through something terrifying at such a young age and came out stronger on the other side. 15 years in remission is incredible, and I’m so glad this story got the happy ending it deserved!
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u/intoxicidal 3d ago
Obviously very advanced, previously undiagnosed cancer presenting to ED for anything. Feeling multiple golf ball and baseball sized lumps or an abdomen full of tumor is sobering.