Since becoming a mother, I have become a bit of a hypochondriac. The intrusive thoughts about falling ill can be pretty persistent for me. And mostly this is based in my fear of leaving my child without a mom far too soon. So when other moms share the symptoms that could have tipped them off to a larger problem looming, I listen.
Mom Kelly Mann used social media to do that for fellow moms. The university professor told Today that that two years ago she began suffering from the worst case of pink eye in her life. Event after antibiotics, it would return roughly six times.
“Then one night while watching TV, I went to itch my arm and felt a lump,” she recalled. “My husband was asleep, so I kind of panicked and went back and forth, like, ‘Is this what I’m really feeling, or am I making this up in my head?'”
She immediately made an appointment and just a week before her 36th birthday was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. Within a few weeks she began getting treatment which made her have a “crazy” realization.
“After my first chemo, I had the same pink eye situation pop up again,” she added. “I was so frustrated, and it was one of the worst versions of it.”
She learned that she wasn’t actually experiencing pink eye, but episcleritis, which causes red, swollen, and “discharging” eyes. The cause isn’t known, according to People, but it can indicate an underlying condition.
“Episcleritis was my first real, tangible symptom that I had,” she said. “I thought it was fascinating and also crazy and mind-blowing that your body really does know what’s going on far before any normal diagnostics could make sense of it.”
Two years, 12 rounds of chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, and reconstructive surgery later, she is now considered a cancer survivor. Though Mann says she still gets episcleritis, she manages it with steroid drops and keeps pressing forward for her three young children.
