Teen’s ‘pulled muscle’ turns out to be deadly cancer

It almost turned into a deadlift.

A shark at a British gym who thought she pulled a muscle during a workout was surprised to discover that the lump was actually a cancerous mass.

“The lump was very large, about the size of an apple,” 18-year-old Thomas Evans told The Kennedy News of the tumor.

The exercise enthusiast from Wrexham, Wales noticed painful apple-sized bumps after a weight training session in June, but initially thought it was just a ‘gym injury’.

“I went to the gym and two days later I had a big lump in my shoulder that was causing really bad pain,” Evans said. It wasn’t.”

His boo-boo seemed harmless, but the concerned Welsh lad’s mother, Rachel Tudor, took her son to the doctor. They then had him take X-rays of his shoulders and chest, and eventually a CT scan of him, which revealed something ominous.

Tudor also initially thought her gym-addicted son had just broken something, but after “he received a letter in the mail asking him to discuss the results,” she became uneasy.

“I knew right away that something was wrong,” said a distraught hospital technician. He later learned “heartbreaking news” that her pride and her joy had “a fist-sized lump on her chest.”

“He went straight to a blood test and a biopsy to see what it was, but we were facing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or testicular cancer,” she lamented. I went home and cried for the entire two weeks waiting for my test results.”

She said, “It was the most terrifying two weeks of our lives because of the crippling anxiety we were facing on Earth.

Their worst fear was confirmed in July after doctors diagnosed Evans with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. causes swelling.

Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the most common cancer diagnosed in adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19. According to Cancer.org.

The teen was devastated by the news. “That [the diagnosis] It’s a weird moment to describe, because it didn’t hit me right away, it was more like a later one. But when they said what it really was, I knew what it was.

Evans’ case was particularly difficult to diagnose because he presented no symptoms other than a clavicular lump (seen on accompanying X-rays) caused by a mass in his chest. Nonetheless, doctors believe he caught the tumor early because it formed earlier this year.

The aspiring electrician started chemotherapy in September to combat the disease, reports Kennedy. Relief came five weeks ago after his scans revealed he was cancer-free, but he still said he would wait until the end of February for treatment “just to make sure the cancer was nowhere to be found.” decided to do.”

Evans said tests may have cleared him of cancer, but the chemotherapy had taken a toll on his body. It’s much more difficult now to go out because of the high risk of infection,” he said. , especially while undergoing treatment.”

In addition, chemotherapy left Evans susceptible to immune disorders. “Thomas was hospitalized several times with neutropenic sepsis, and the fear that he might catch an infection was our main concern during this time,” his mother said. I got

Despite the hurdles, Tudor said he’s happy “he’s on track and doing well”, adding that he’s “very proud of him and how he’s handled it”. rice field.

she even created GoFundMe page Raise funds so her son and girlfriend Morgan can take a vacation and celebrate that he has completed his treatment. They aim to donate the rest to charities that help lymphoma patients. I’m here.

In light of his epic story, Evans warns the public not to ignore even seemingly harmless symptoms.

“I told other people with symptoms to go and get tested because they just didn’t know I was injured, otherwise I still didn’t know,” he said. Told.