We all know that horrible sinus infection feeling of a blocked nose and heavy head. Usually, it'll clear after a week or so, and life can be lived again. But for one woman it persisted, pushing her to have an examination that revealed the worst.
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22-year-old Breeze Hunter of Texas A&M University often had sinus problems. So, when she had a feeling like a rubber band pulling at her head, and weight loss, she chalked it up to that. Looking back on her first visit to a medical center, she said, "I had a lot of fluid in my ears, which was causing the headaches. I went to a clinic a few times and they pretty much said it was a sinus infection."
But, the symptoms persisted, and she continued shedding weight. At one point she was too weak to even lift herself up stairs. Deciding to take it more seriously, the student took herself to her campus doctors office. They ran a few tests and discovered she was seriously aneimic.
Her first visit to the doctor wasn't viable. They didn't have room for her. So she took herself to her hometown's ER in League City, Texas. It was immediately clear that this wasn't a simple sinus infection. The doctors knew something was seriously wrong and began a series of blood tests.
Blood Tests Confirm 22-Year-Old Has Cancer
The extensive tests revealed that the 22-year-old Texas student didn't have a sinus infection. The news came back, and it was not a positive prognosis. "I had many people coming in and saying, It's looking like a sign of leukemia, but we'll keep testing because it could be a bunch of other things."
She didn't know what leukemia was, and had to research it. She was eventually diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which is a bone marrow cancer. Eventually, the cancer spreads from the bones, and affects the blood as well. This travels around the body, attacking most of the body's vital organs.
She underwent chemotherapy immediately. This doesn't often have positive results due to the complexity of the cancer. In the 18 to 35 age group, there is only a 52% survival rate past 5 years. However, remarkably, after only two chemotherapy sessions, the 22-year-old student recovered enough to no longer need it.
She had undergone radiation therapy, a stem cell transplant, and been under the watchful eye of doctors. However, she is in remission now, and has a positive outlook.
