Woman’s painful shoulder leads to shock diagnosis
In December 2022, a normal day in the office turned into a nightmare for 24-year-old Kadi Watson.
The customer service rep stretched out her hand to feel her shoulder - the same shoulder she'd been experiencing pain with a day prior.
Speaking to 7Life, the 24-year-old revealed, “It felt kind of like when you do a workout and then days later you get the muscle soreness.”
“I hadn’t done anything to warrant having that soreness.”
She said she was feeling between her neck and her right shoulder when she discovered a lump.
“OK, that’s a bit unusual,” she recalled.
For the next two days, she monitored the lump, but it didn’t go away.
So, she booked a doctor’s appointment and her GP reassured her there shouldn’t be “much need to worry”.
However, to rule out anything malicious, the GP booked her in for an ultrasound of the lump and an X-ray.
A week later, as Watson was set for her ultrasound, the technician contacted a radiologist and requested that Watson also undergo a CT scan.
The scan showed “heaps of lumps” around her chest and heart.
“That’s when they said, ‘This is more serious than just a lump growing on your neck’,” she revealed.
She underwent surgery to remove the lumps and admitted she had come to terms with the possibility she could have cancer.
When she learned the results, Watson was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma - a rare type of blood cancer.
“I was expecting a phone call, I knew it wasn’t going to be face to face,” she said, adding that by that point she was exhausted from going to appointments every day and waiting around for calls.
“Obviously, a call would have been better, but I got the text message instead,” she explained.
“I feel like I was a bit more mentally prepared when I got those results because by that time it had been three or four weeks with, ‘This is what you could have’ and me mentally preparing for that answer.”
Watson said her diagnosis put her life into perspective.
“I thought by 24 I would have done a bit more than just do the old routine kind of thing,” she said.
“I felt like I should have done more with my life than just sat here and worked.
“You spend so much time working - and not enough time living.”
She has also connected with people on their own journeys throughout 2023 so far.
“I get probably five messages a day of people telling me how much this has helped them and what they can look out for,” she admitted.
“It’s not really the most common cancer out there and I didn’t know about it until I got diagnosed with it.
“So I’m glad to spread a bit more awareness.
“I’m very, very excited for the day where I can say ‘I’m in remission’.”
Image credit: Instagram