A mother from California’s has revealed her cancer symptoms were blamed on anxiety and doctors said she should ‘see a therapist’.
Ashley, 35, started experiencing small signs like trouble swallowing and a sore throat in 2020. By the time she was finally diagnosed with lung cancer, the deadliest form of cancer in the US, her whole body was so swollen that she could barely move.
Ashley said she has never smoked and has always been relatively healthy. She regularly ran marathons and participated in martial arts.
Ashley, a 35-year-old mother from California, started having symptoms like trouble swallowing and fatigue two years prior to her stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. By the time she was finally diagnosed, her entire body was so swollen that she ‘could not move’
Ashley had been very physically fit prior to her diagnosis, running marathons and participating in martial arts. A couple of months before her diagnosis, she had to stop working out entirely
However, one of her first symptoms was feeling more tired than usual. She also had difficulty swallowing and choked more often on her food.
‘My throat just felt weird. I wouldn’t say it was a sore throat, but I was drinking or chugging water. My throat felt a little dry. Food felt differently as it went down my throat,’ Ashley said.
She attributed those symptoms to stress from the pandemic and her work as a medical social worker.
A year later, Ashley went to urgent care with a cough and a headache, along with her other symptoms, and was only tested for Covid.
As time went on, the cough intensified.
‘It was affecting me at work. It was affecting conversations. I’m a fast talker; at this time I was noticing I had to slow down [and] take breaths in between,’ she said.
‘I went through bags of cough drops. I probably spent hundreds of dollars on cough drops during this time.’
Ashley started losing weight and wheezing, which doctors prescribed her an inhaler for. She had recently been divorced, so her medical team believed she was just stressed.
A few months later, Ashley’s cough became dry and intense. A chest x-ray came back normal because the tumor, she found out later, was hiding behind her heart.
Ashley’s symptoms progressed as time went on, but doctors would often send her away. One doctor suggested she see a therapist to deal with stress
Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer in the US, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The survival rate drops significantly as it spreads. Distant lung cancer has just an 8.2 percent five-year survival rate
‘If they would have ordered me a CT or a PET scan, it would have shown up on that,’ she said.
She continued losing weight and started vomiting in the mornings. With an inhaler in hand, she ran a half marathon, though it took her significantly longer to complete it than normal.
Her average time was about two hours, and she estimates this event took at least three and a half to four hours.
‘I probably went through a whole inhaler during that half marathon,’ she said.
Because Ashley ran a half marathon, doctors claimed it couldn’t be lung cancer.
‘They said, “It’s all stress. You’re going through a divorce, you’re working in healthcare, there’s a pandemic, you have young kids. Maybe go see a therapist,’ she said.
‘I could barely swallow at this time. It felt like there were just lumps in my throat.’
Normally physically active, Ashley had to stop working out and had lost 10 to 15 pounds. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with pneumonia.
Then, her entire body swelled.
‘I couldn’t put my shoes on, couldn’t pick up my children,’ she said.
‘I could not move at all.’
Though she continued seeking out doctors and checking herself into the emergency room, doctors kept sending Ashley away.
Finally, her girlfriend insisted she go to the emergency room and not leave until she got an answer.
‘This saved my life,’ she said.
Doctors found blood clots in one leg and one lung,
Doctors found blood clots in her leg and another in her right lung, then discovered stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer.
Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer in the US, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). It accounts for one in five cancer deaths, followed by colorectal cancer, which causes one in 10 cancer deaths.
It’s also most often diagnosed after it has already spread to other areas. About 53 percent of cases are considered distant, which means they have traveled to multiple other organs.
The survival rate also drops significantly in these cases. Distant lung cancer has just an 8.2 percent five-year survival rate.
Only one in four lung cancer patients survive after five years.
There are two main types of lung cancer: small cell and non-small cell.
Non-small cell is the most common, accounting for nine out of 10 lung cancer diagnoses, and typically grows more slowly. It usually doesn’t cause any symptoms until it has progressed.
The United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) only recommends lung cancer screening for adults 50 to 80 years old who have smoked 20 packs of cigarettes per year or quit within the last 15 years.
‘It turns out if I didn’t start treatment when I did, I would have had under five months to live,’ Ashley said.
‘I’m really thankful that I had people around me that listened and loved me because my life depended on it.’
Ashley has since had one of her lungs removed and is undergoing an eight-month course of chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy.
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