Meg Martin, 41, never thought the on-and-off back pain, fatigue and brain fog bringing her down were the warning signs of a life-threatening illness sitting undetected in her body. The busy mom was juggling work while homeschooling her daughter and put the symptoms down to stress, exhaustion and perimenopause. After all, her recent blood test results had come back clear.
But when worsening pain landed Martin in the emergency room one Sunday, scans revealed something she had never once contemplated, a large mass on her left kidney. "In June, I was diagnosed with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer," Martin told Newsweek. "What still amazes me is how many signs I had that I never imagined could be connected to cancer." Her experience highlights the primary challenge with kidney cancer—that it can develop without obvious warning signs.
Symptoms such as fatigue, back pain and unexplained weight loss can have many possible causes, making them easy to dismiss or attribute to everyday life. Martin said she had experienced body aches every now and then for years, particularly back pain after long days, as well as fatigue, brain fog, night sweats, cold spells, itchy legs and unexplained weight loss. She also felt uncomfortable after eating.
"I was busy, so it was easy to explain the symptoms as being tired, stressed, or simply having a lot on my plate," she said. The weight loss seemed explainable because she had recently adopted a low-carbohydrate diet, while night sweats appeared consistent with perimenopause. Her itchy legs were also easy to brush off as just being the result of dry skin.
Importantly, medical tests performed shortly before her diagnosis did not indicate anything was seriously wrong. "My lab work had been normal in May," Martin said. "Which made it harder to recognize that something serious could be happening." Her white blood cell counts were not even elevated, and her kidney function was apparently good, she said.
Her gynecologist suggested her symptoms were most likely linked to fluctuating hormones and did not recommend seeking scans. Looking back, Martin said she should have pushed for firmer answers. Eric Singer, a urologic surgeon and oncologist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, told Newsweek that kidney cancer's lack of obvious warning signs can complicate detection.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
