Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world (Health: The Basics; Rebecca J. Donatelle, pg. 365,207). There are many different types of cancer but the signs are all the same. They all come with the same symptoms, you just have to really understand your body and recognize any symptoms that seem not normal. Different cancers have different symptoms, for example if you have a persistent cough and blood streaked sputum then it could be a chance that you have lung cancer or if a women feels a lump in her breast that she has never felt before then she may have breast cancer. It is always good to have yourself check randomly or even if you feel that something has changed in your body get checked.
In Dec. 2010, I was diagnosed with a rare disease called Thymoma Cancer. I had never heard of this cancer and always felt that nothing like this would ever happen to me. Thymoma cancer is a cancer that lies in the upper chest breastbone. It’s a small organ that protects the body against infectious diseases that can grow into a cancerous tumor. The symptoms are a cough that doesn’t go away, chest pain, and trouble breathing. On Thanksgiving Day 2010, I started have a very unusual main in my left arm. I felt that it was nothing because I had just had a baby in January and had been to the doctor regular and knew in my heart that everything would be okay.
I was wrong, as the morning went on the main started getting worse, but me being just liked any typical American I just kept saying that it would go away nothing is wrong. This is how a lot of cancer or any other diseases go untreated, because people just take pain medicine and expect the pain to go away. As the day went on the pain got worse and I continued to put it off. As I woke up the next morning the pain was still there and I had to go to work I figured that I could handle the pain and it would eventually go away. By the time I got to work the pain had increased, but again work was my main focus. I had never been a person that could be held down by anything especially since I had a baby; I had to work and continue to make my money. I decided that I needed to leave work and see what was going on.
I decided to go to an Urgent Care facility, because I didn’t feel that it was serious enough to go to a hospital. When the doctors checked me, he only told me that I had pneumonia and that he was referring me to a lung specialist. I felt that I needed a second opinion, and yes if you feel that you need someone to give you a more accurate answer, and then get a second, third and fourth opinion. I was very persistent in seeing a doctor right away the lung specialist got me in right away. After getting into the doctor they informed me I had a large mass that had grown onto my lungs and my heart.
After a failed biopsy, I had to be admitted into the hospital. That is when they told me that I had cancer; those are words that no one wants to hear. When you hear them you automatically think death and since I had just had a baby all I wanted was to be with my baby. I had to endure three horrible months of chemotherapy after that I had to have surgery to remove the tumor that had went from 9.5 centimeters to 7.5 centimeters. In April 2011, I went in to have open heart surgery where they had to take part of my lung and the lining to my heart. If I had continued to put this off much longer I could have died. When my cancer was found I was in Stage III, had it not been for me recognizing my pain it could have been too late.
I have scars to showing everything that I had to go through to survive for my son, but I am happy to be alive. I will share my story with the world if I could get everyone to get checked for any type of cancer just to make sure that you are okay. There are many different signs and different types some that you may never hear of or maybe some that you have. You have to take over your life not let something else take it over. It feels really good to celebrate birthdays after your diagnoses.
