A WOMAN in her early 20s suffers from a rare cancer, but says several doctors she saw dismissed her, telling her it was probably hemorrhoids.
Kasey Altman, 25, was diagnosed with a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, which affects the soft tissue.
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But she only got the diagnosis because she refused to take no for an answer and saw several doctors until one of them finally agreed to run some tests on her.
Altman told the Caters News Agency that doctors were initially dismissive because she was otherwise healthy and was young.
“I was perfectly healthy, exercising daily, eating well,” she told the outlet.
“I’m a former college athlete so I take my health very seriously. Then I had these tumors pop up on my body, which was close to my anus, and no one would listen to me because I was young, healthy and looked fine.”
She explained that the first doctor she saw refused to give her any sort of exam.
“She just refused to look at it. I walked in and said, ‘This is what I think is a tumor on my body,'” Altman explained.
“She dismissed me within two minutes and sent me on my way with a suppository, which would help with a hemorrhoid.”
The third doctor she saw, an obstetrician-gynecologist, also didn’t believe it was anything serious, but agreed to do some tests after Altman pushed back.
“I started to get emotional because no one was hearing me, and this was the third time it happened in three weeks,” she said.
“She was reluctant but did order a CT scan, which then led to my diagnosis. So, I’m grateful for that but it was still considered an issue to get her to take me seriously.”
A STAGE 4 DIAGNOSIS
Altman’s diagnosis was stage 4, meaning that the cancer had spread to other parts of the body.
Altman initially underwent chemotherapy to treat her disease, only for it to return in October of last year.
However, she said she’s “pursuing every option under the sun” when it comes to treatment, and she’s taken to TikTok to share her story of advocating for her own health.
She found that her experience of being brushed off my doctors is one that a lot of her 35,000 followers expressed they could relate to.
“I honestly didn’t really know until after posting on TikTok how many people had a similar story to me,” she said.
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