Cancer Diary: Missed and Misinterpreted Signs of Cancer

 

By the time, Carl was diagnosed, his cancer was metastized to his liver, lungs, bones, and upper stomach. After many biopsies and scans, the primary could not be found, and the cancer was officially labeled Cancer of Unknown Primary.

Impaired Mobility: harder and harder to walk and climb stairs

•     We associated this with worsening of gout, which had been present for more than a decade
•     This could have been due as well to cancer-related hypercalcemia and bone cancer

Frequent urination

•     We associated this with normal aging
•     This could have been related to prostate cancer (not the case with Carl but the case with many)

Pain in the side

•     We associated this with a gallbladder attack; it appeared similar to what our daughter, who had her gallbladder removed, had gone through.
•     We did not know that this same kind of pain is diagnostic of liver cancer.

Frequent dozing off while working on the computer or watching television

• We associated this associated with 
• fatigue from two recent heart attacks
• his night-owl approach to life
• restless leg syndrome, causing lack of good quality sleep
• sleep apnea, causing lack of good quality sleep
• We did not realize that fatigue can also be associated with cancer.

Slow down on work productivity

• We associated this with lack of interest in the job (indeed, Carl was wanting to cut back/divest from publishing -- thought we were getting old enough to deserve a real retirement, which, alas, he never got).
• We never thought that this increasing lack of intellectual interest could be associated with growing physical fatigue.

Fungus (this is a contentious area of study, or rather lack of study for the most part, right now, and we will be adding research on it to the CCC as well as a future CD post)

•   We associated this with an annoyance shared by many people.
• So did his doctor; he never suggested looking further into what the fungus might be causing or associated with, even when the fungus started really taking over Carl's external body.
• Our focus was on containing the fungus through soaps and ointments, not ascribing anything more to it than itchiness and inconvenience.
•     This could have been a sign of cancer according to a number of sources:
• The Cancer Fighting Strategies website suggests "cancer is a fungus" (note: content not approved by FDA, and there is a sales pitch; it makes for interesting reading, but check out anything you are tempted to believe with more credible sources)
• By the end, Carl's body was fuzzy all over the outside, with fungus in every area that could at some point be moist, as well as nails; it was also fuzzy all over the inside with cancer.

Misinterpretation of stomach cramps

• Carl had stomach cancer but he never had stomach pain, nor did he ever throw up inn his life except once at the age of 21; even chemo did not distress his stomach
• With no evidence of stomach involvement, we had no idea until the diagnosis of metastatic cancer included his stomach that he did indeed have stomach cancer -- though many people do experience stomach cancer pain that is misinterpreted for other things like stomach cramps   

This is not a complete list of missed signs, of course. Irritability, short temper, and emotions related to not feeling well in general can be attributed to things other than cancer since they usually are related to things other than cancer. We will do a follow-up post on this topic after a while as we gather more information about what signs of cancer are frequently missed. (Please share yours! Almost every cancer patient has them)

In the interim, Galleri is developing with Mayo Clinic a blood test for early detection of more than 50 kinds of cancer. I would give up a little blood for that!

Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page, Carl's Cancer Compendium, as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The web page is in its infancy but expected to expand into robustness. To that end, it is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be open to guest posts: Cancer Diary. 

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