Even though college students don’t face the types of problems that adults do, such as raising a family and taking care of every little part of their lives, they deal with a lot of stress, most of which probably stems from their education.
Such is the case with a female student who attributed the symptoms she was exhibiting, such as fatigue and exhaustion, to university stress and hangovers, but eventually turned out to be a fatal disease, which she was able to discover on time due to her health anxiety and regular doctor’s appointments.
She is now using her own experience to try to raise awareness after she was diagnosed with cancer.
When Molly first suspected something was wrong following a night of excessive drinking during her second year of a Geography degree, she experienced abdominal pain. She ignored the symptoms and believed it was due to university stress.
“I just thought ‘oh this is new, my body must not be able to tolerate alcohol as much. I was extremely tired,” she said of her symptoms. “It would get to 1 p.m. and I’d crash, I’d feel like I was in a dream. Sometimes I thought it was a hangover, and sometimes I put it down to the workload at uni. Even if I went to bed at 10pm sometimes I’d be waking up at 1pm because I was exhausted,” said Molly.
She went on to say that she finally quit going out to clubs and bars when she was in college because she would wake up with “a really bad pain in my abdomen underneath my diaphragm.”
Several months later, she developed a lump in her neck and decided to seek medical attention since the lump in her neck was almost the size of two grapes, and additionally, she had itchy skin.
Molly’s condition was first misdiagnosed as a consequence of having previously suffered from glandular fever. However, she insisted on undergoing a thorough analysis.
Molly said that she was sent for cancer testing and an ultrasound after the lump in her neck remained for two weeks. These procedures took an additional two weeks to complete.
During this time, she came upon yet another lump on her body.
She was then informed that due to the size of the lump, she would need to have a biopsy performed, and while it took a month for her to obtain the results, she was ultimately diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
She underwent chemotherapy after the cancer left her with over 3 inches of mass in her chest, in addition to the lump that was previously found in her neck. Molly reacted well to the treatment, and she is now in remission.
Molly is now in the midst of her third round of chemotherapy, and her total number of rounds has been reduced from 12 to 6. However, she may still need extra radiation treatment.
“I’ve always struggled with health anxiety. That’s how I really found out everything because I’m so in touch with my body and make sure I check for lumps monthly. I’m living in my nightmare. I went into my third round of chemo in a more positive mindset and I am excited for the future now,” Molly added.
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