If you find a lump go to your doctor

Happy121

I am 42, married, with two daughters aged 11 and 14.

I found a lump in my leg, but I did nothing about it for 4 months.

When I eventually went to the doctor he said not to be too worried about it. He gave me a letter to contact a specialist, I waited another 2 months.

When the specialist saw it he said there was nothing to worry about. But he booked me in to have it removed. When the day finally arrived for the lump to be removed it was 7.5cm wide.

The ‘lump’ was actually a malignant tumor. It is called a Sarcoma and it is cancer.

I should have gone to the doctors a lot sooner. Why did I not?

I had a small lump in my groin for about 4 years, I had it checked out by the doctor and he said it was fine. I thought this would be the same.

A small part of me said ‘it will go away itself’.

Another part of me said “it will never happen to me”

But the biggest thought I had, was that it was not painful, I thought if it was serious it would be sore. I was wrong.

During the past 10 months since I was told I had cancer, I had to have a second operation to remove a lot more of my leg. I have had to have chemo therapy and radio therapy. I have been made very sick by these treatments. I have a 17cm X 23cm burn on my leg that was so bad morphine could not hide its pain. I have lost every hair on my body. I have been grey, yellow and white.

If I had it removed when I saw it, my chances of survival would be much higher. If it had not grown so big, I might not have needed chemo and radiation. I may have signed my own death warrant by not going to the doctor soon enough.

If you find a lump, go to your doctor. If it is nothing, then that is the end of it, but if it is cancer, you will have a much better chance of survival if you have it seen sooner.

Pj!

Great post Happy121! The kind of thing that anyone who has read it will remember in the coming years if they do happen to find a lump. And will probably act so much quicker for it.

Wishing you the best mate.

Happy121

Thanks Forky.

Nision

Fair play Forky, i admire your honesty.

Star Lord

Hope everything goes well for you Happy121, thanks for sharing your story!

Happy121

Thanks guys.

Lovinguinness

I had a myxoid liposarcoma on the abdominal wall. Most lumps are sweet fa, but the odd one is dodgy so the initial poster is right. Get any lump or bump looked at.

H3llR4iser

Thanks for sharing the experience; Unfortunately investment and attention to male health issues are near non-existent; It all usually comes down to "ah yeah, check your balls in the shower every now and then!". As a result, we're often totally unaware of risk factors and tend to underestimate and ignore symptoms of something not being quite all right.

TheBoyConor

Exactly, you're dead right.

I do remember about a year ago there was a new website malehealth.ie launched to much fanfare and PR spin aimed at educating and encouraging men about look after themselves properly.

I acknowledge it was a well intentioned initiative but it was very poorly executed. It contains some of the most patronising, condescending clap-trap I have ever read in relation health and looking after yourself.
Complete with the usual stuff like comparing a medical checkup to doing the NCT for your balls.

The actual content was useless too. It was broken down into how to look after yourself in each decade of life. The content in each section was largely a copy & paste job with lazy rent-a-picture stock photos of presumably american men in their 30s, 40,s 50s, etc for each section. The only actual differnce in the sections was from 50s up it was like "oh yeah, your prostate (obligatory walnut analogy inlcuded)

Is this the best that can be done ffs?