Nobody 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.
More info: Reddit
#1
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!
Image source: CinnyToastie, zinkevych
#2
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.
Image source: Angelicfyre, defstock
#3
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!
Image source: liquid_skies_, freepik
#4
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.
Image source: Practical_Volume_681, freepik
#5
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.
Image source: DirectAccountant3253, freepic.diller
#6
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.
Image source: Emergency_Formal9064, freepik
#7
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.
Image source: Fmmkrgnd, DC Studio
#8
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.
Image source: Superb-Ad3821, stefamerpik
#9
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.
Image source: Brynhild, pressfoto
#10
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!
Image source: Life-Two9562, prostooleh
#11
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. .
Image source: eskimospy212, freepik
#12
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.
Image source: unholyswordsman, freepik
#13
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.
Image source: blackday44, pressfoto
#14
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!
Image source: anon, felicities
#15
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.
Image source: Competes4Cookies, rawpixel.com
#16
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.
Image source: outlawbookworm, freepik
#17
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.
Image source: rain_on_me_baby, yaroslav-astakhov-
#18
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.
Image source: watchingonsidelines, freepik
#19
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. .
Image source: memsosassers, krakenimages.com
#20
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.
Image source: RevolutionaryCitizen, EyeEm
#21
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.
Image source: raptorboy, Pixabay
#22
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.
Image source: krim2182, freepik
#23
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.
Image source: Majick_L, benzoix
#24
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.
Image source: Temporary_Linguist, senivpetro
#25
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.
#26
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.
Image source: TeamScience79, freepik
#27
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.
Image source: KilfordBrimley, user25451090
#28
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.
Image source: elmementosublime, namii9
#29
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.
Image source: tonkatruckz369, rawpixel.com
#30
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!
Image source: paul-SF, hryshchyshen
#31
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…
Image source: bethivy103
#32
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.
Image source: rcwb3000
#33
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.
Image source: Excellent-Metal-3294
#34
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!
Image source: vvvy1978
#35
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.
Image source: brandine__spuckler
#36
Constantly having to pee. Went in for a CT, they found a 14cm tumor on my left ovary.
Image source: BobsleddingToMyGrave
#37
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.
Image source: Doonot
#38
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.
Image source: februarytide-
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