As you begin to mature and your mind shifts its awareness inward, you may find yourself taking a long look in the mirror and realizing how important being healthy and active is throughout the aging process. With your newfound passion for consuming the right foods and practicing self-care, consulting with your doctor starts to happen regularly.
While basking in the glow of wisdom and maturity, many individuals begin exploring the complexities of serious topics, such as cancer and the early signs that cancer may be present. If you have found yourself in this predicament or want to know how to detect cancer early, here are the topics, symptoms and questions to consider.
Know the Warning Signs
Like most things in life, there are small indicators that something is occurring right below our nose, but you may turn a blind eye and brush it off as a minor inconvenience. While you may be correct in your assumptions, some specific cancer-related symptoms and occurrences should never be ignored when experienced.
The first indicator that cancer may be growing is when you can’t seem to generate any energy or sustain focus. If you have weeks and months of extreme fatigue that cannot be alleviated with midday naps, getting a good night’s sleep or a few cups of coffee, your body is telling you something.
In conjunction with crippling fatigue comes the inability to consume meals or snacks throughout your waking hours. While each individual has unique eating habits and patterns they follow subconsciously, patients who have received a cancer diagnosis drop weight rapidly and experience flu-like symptoms. For cancer patients, gaining weight can be challenging, and keeping a meal in their system becomes a burden.
Before assuming the worst, ask yourself these questions with brutal honesty and take note of your answer:
- Have you found lumps, discoloration or sensitivity on your body?
- Do you see blood in your urine or stool after using the bathroom?
- Has sleeping consumed your life to the point where you can’t get anything done?
- Do you have a cough that won’t go away?
- Are bouts of chronic fever and cold chills a regular part of your lifestyle?
- Has your skin’s texture and color begun to change at random?
- Do you have moles that are dark, sensitive, itchy or showcase an uneven border?
- When you eat a meal or sip a drink, do you struggle to swallow?
- Has your neck become inflamed, swollen or discolored?
- For male readers, have you discovered a lump in your testicular region?
- For females, do you notice bleeding or spotting between menstrual cycles? Moreover, women who have gone through menopause may notice blood loss at random from undiagnosed cervical cancer.
These questions can begin to paint a picture of what you’re dealing with in your daily life. Consult with your doctor and discuss these topics to generate an approach that calms your nerves and begins unfolding the possibility of cancer discovery and treatment.
How To Detect Cancer Early With Regular Screenings
If you’re anything like the average adult, the only time you schedule an appointment with your healthcare physician is when you experience pain, bleeding or discover a lump. With yearly checkups, you can put your mind at ease and know, without a shadow of a doubt, what’s going on below the surface.
More importantly, yearly screenings showcase health indicators that you can improve in subsequent months. While your circumstances and biological factors are unique, healthcare professionals and medical researchers ask patients to consider the followings screenings on a yearly basis:
- Breast
- Colon
- Lung
- Cervical
- Throat
- Skin and Melanoma
- Kidney
Before planning these cancer screenings, consult with your primary health provider first to understand what genetic dispositions you have. From here, your doctor will ask about your family history with cancer, any symptoms you may be experiencing and changes in your daily life.
Although a cancer screening, and a potential diagnosis, may cause anxiety to arise and fear to set in, it gives you the power to control your health and well-being moving into the future.
At Porter Law Group, our focus is to stay educated and current within the cancer law niche and adapt to new rules and regulations as they get introduced into medical practice.
Our team works tirelessly to restore power to clients who feel as though they’ve lost everything: From misdiagnosis to medical negligence, we’re ready to formulate a strategy that fits your needs and surpasses your expectations. Reach out today and see if we can alleviate your woes and get you back on the right path.
