By One key lesson for anyone — no matter what age
Although I wouldn’t say I like discussing death and cancer, I feel compelled to bring this harsh reality into everyone’s consciousness.
My parents died of cancer, and lifestyle habits were to blame. So being healthy, active and closely monitoring my health seems natural after what I’ve seen.
Cancer has this sneaky way of taking over when you least expect it. Sometimes the symptoms appear, and at other times, another examination will reveal the truth.
Doctors will, unfortunately, tell you what you don’t want to hear — how much time you have left on earth.
I will never forget my mum’s doctor telling us this sad news.
She had pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer patients have a very limited chance of survival. Some die within weeks of diagnosis. I had seen this happen to many people in the hospital during mums stay.
The cancer is so small that no ultrasound could pick it up when detected. The symptoms are silent too. So mum dismissed hers as getting old and tired.
But it was more than just old age — and unfortunately, we all try to dismiss our symptoms as something happening due to many factors other than disease.
Here’s Jessica’s story
For instance, a young woman named Jessica was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer.
Her doctors dismissed the symptoms as a bad bout of food poisoning.
Jessica was healthy until she experienced horrifically painful cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea. She stuck by her guns to get a diagnosis.
Doctors eventually found a tumour blocking half her colon that measured 2cm.
Bowel cancer is more common for those aged 50 than for young women like Jessica.
As you can imagine, the diagnosis shocked her — why did this happen to her? She had no history whatsoever of any cancer.
Doctors removed half of Jessica’s bowl to remove cancer, which she recovered well from.
Unfortunately, cancer spread to her lymph nodes. Therefore, she had to endure nine rounds of chemo to make a full recovery.
At the time of this post, she is currently in her fourth round.
Thankfully Jessica is lucky, and she has some advice for us all.
Key take away
Jessica admits that we all know our bodies pretty well — and when something isn’t quite right, we must take action immediately.
Experiencing issues such as Jessica’s (or perhaps some stomach or gut pain that is out of the ordinary), you must continually push for answers.
We have one body, and it’s important to get annual checkups — even if you don’t feel like something is wrong. Make it part of your healthy lifestyle to take some time and get the necessary tests.
Jessica says you are not alone — turn to your loved ones and friends for support and guidance.
She has taken months off work to recover — without income.
Jessicas lovely friends are rallying behind her to help cover the mounting medical bills.
If you would like to contribute, here is the link.
I felt compelled to bring more awareness when it comes to cancer.
Although this is not a sign of acting paranoid about every little ache and pain — what I want to encourage you to do is have regular checkups with your doctor.
If you feel that something isn’t right — or is out of the ordinary- you have every right to get the tests you need. It could be the one thing that saves your life. Pain manifests in our bodies for a reason — listen to it and take action.
Thanks for reading.
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