Is That A Lump In Your Neck or Are You Happy To See Me?
If you want to beat cancer, don’t ignore your body’s warning signs
There’s a recording that plays over the loudspeaker on CTA trains that is no doubt familiar to anyone who has taken public transportation in Chicago:
If you see something, say something.
While this message is meant as a security measure to encourage passengers to report suspicious activities or individuals to CTA personnel, it’s also pretty good health advice.
If you notice something weird happening to your body — a lump, a rash, a recurring pain, or anything else — take note.
I’ve always marveled at the complexity of the human body’s systems and how infrequently things actually go wrong, considering the mileage we put on our bodies even just in a single day. Heck, I can think of quite a few things that could go wrong with my body during a simple walk across my living room. But those things don’t happen, because our bodies are also designed to be wonderfully resilient in their brilliant complexity.
That said, when something is actually wrong, your body is also programmed to usually send you some fairly obvious messages about it. If it sees something, it says something. To paraphrase some vintage Christina Aguilera, these signs mean that your body’s sayin’ let’s go [to the doctor] even if your heart is sayin’ no.
DO NOT IGNORE YOUR BODY’S WARNING SIGNS.
Today I saw a story trending on Facebook that reminded me of how important it is to be vigilant in watching for these kinds of signs— and helping those around you to do the same.
In this case, an HGTV personality was able to diagnose and treat his thyroid cancer — and is now in remission — thanks to a concerned HGTV-watching nurse who sent him a message about a disturbing lump she noticed on his neck during one of his shows.
In my case, I noticed a lump on the right side of my neck. It was late October 2014 and I was at Red Robin getting ready to attend my alma mater’s (Go U! NU!) homecoming game. I had also been married for just over a month and was a few days away from leaving for my belated honeymoon. Obviously I was in no frame of mind to assume that anything bad could possibly be brewing in my lymphatic system when I discovered a weird protrusion in my neck. I was sure the lump — which was hard to the touch but not at all tender or painful — was just an enlarged gland or some other oddity that would soon pass.
When November rolled around, the lump not only remained, but began taking up more real estate. When I needed to wear a tie, I could no longer comfortably keep my shirt buttoned to the top. While I like the jaunty look of a necktie with the top button undone as much as the next Frank Sinatra fan, this clearly wasn’t just an enlarged gland or any other lymphatic fluke.
I went to my doctor and had it checked out. He recommended I see an ear, nose and throat specialist. I had a scope down my throat and a needle biopsy. As I waited for the results, the lump continued to grow.
On January 2, I got the stunning news that the lump was cancerous — Hodgkin’s or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fortunately for me, it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma: the “good” kind of cancer, since it is less aggressive and has a 90+ percent cure rate.
Doubly fortunate for me, I had not waited too long to get the lump checked out, so further tests proved that the lymphoma had not appeared to have spread beyond the lymph nodes in my neck, and the ever-growing lump was still small enough to be classified as “non-bulky,” meaning I would ultimately need less treatment — six months of chemotherapy, but no radiation.
I learned a lot and have blogged extensively about the experience, but the first lesson of my cancer journey was one of the most important and a message that I had already heard many times:
If you see something, say something.
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