Lindsay was diagnosed with cancer after months of her symptoms not being believed

Woman Shares Chilling Symptoms That Led To Cancer Diagnosis After Doctors Ignored Her For Months

When a young and seemingly healthy woman started noticing strange new symptoms, she sensed something wasn’t right. But getting a diagnosis turned out to be a long and difficult road.

Lindsay, who was just 27 years old at the time, was living her usual everyday life. Then one unexpected incident flipped everything upside down.

It all started with a simple outing. That moment left her feeling like something in her body had changed—and now, she’s speaking up to share her story and raise awareness for others who might be going through the same thing.

Despite what she felt inside, Lindsay spent months being told that her symptoms weren’t real. After a long stretch of being dismissed or ignored, she finally discovered that the root cause was cancer.

One of the earliest signs was a terrifying moment when Lindsay fainted while riding the subway. Though she was frightened by the experience, she didn’t immediately assume it meant anything serious.

But after that, she began to feel dazed—almost like she had a concussion. That odd sensation stuck around and eventually led her to schedule a visit with her primary care doctor to get checked out.

She expected that the doctor’s visit would provide some answers about what was going on, especially since her symptoms seemed to be growing stronger by the day.

But the test results were mostly normal. The only thing out of place was her low blood pressure.

Her doctor gave her a referral to a specialist who focuses on blood pressure issues. But Lindsay still had no real explanation for the strange episode she experienced or why her body felt so off.

Lindsay opened up about how her condition started to unfold shortly after the subway incident. The changes in how she felt were subtle at first but quickly became more noticeable and concerning.

Initially, she felt like she was recovering from a concussion. But then, during conversations with friends, she noticed she would zone out or feel mentally disconnected. Things just kept getting worse from there.

Lindsay spoke with The Patient Story on YouTube and explained: “I felt my body shutting down, which was, again, something I’ve never experienced in my life. And it all started with this one fainting episode.”

She went on to describe more of what she was experiencing: “I was having trouble making it up the stairs and I had really bad sensitivity to noise, so when a siren passed me. I just totally shut down. It was ten times worse for me than anyone else.”

Despite these troubling symptoms, her appointment with the blood pressure specialist didn’t lead to any real answers. According to her test results, Lindsay was still “fine,” even though her energy levels were dropping, she was losing weight rapidly, and she just didn’t feel like herself anymore.

To make matters worse, one specialist brushed off her concerns and jumped to the conclusion that she had an eating disorder. Instead of listening to her symptoms, he gave her antidepressants—ones that are often known to cause weight gain in women as a supposed fix.

That same doctor initially suspected she might have Addison’s disease, a condition where your adrenal glands become severely depleted. Her symptoms seemed to fit the picture. But when those tests came back negative, he changed course and assumed she must have an eating disorder instead.

Feeling completely lost and like no one was really listening to her, Lindsay didn’t give up. She kept searching for someone who would take her seriously and help figure out what was actually happening.

She said: “I went to a neurologist, a cardiologist, rheumatologist, a holistic doctor. I went to acupuncturists. Anyone, because I had every symptom under the sun.”

At one point, a specialist even told her to “go to therapy,” suggesting that everything she was feeling might just be in her head.

Eventually, she visited a holistic doctor. That visit turned out to be a turning point. Right away, the holistic practitioner checked her hormone levels and ran tests. One of the results came back showing an elevated ‘C for A’ level—an indication that her body was inflamed and actively fighting something off.

For Lindsay, that was a huge relief. It finally confirmed that something real was going on with her health. She wasn’t imagining it. Someone was finally paying attention.

Following that visit, Lindsay was diagnosed with a condition called POTS.

The Cleveland Clinic explains it as: “Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition that causes a number of symptoms when you transition from lying down to standing up, such as a fast heart rate, dizziness and fatigue. While there’s no cure, several treatments and lifestyle changes can help manage the symptoms of POTS.”

But even though she finally had a name for some of her symptoms, that still didn’t explain everything she was going through.

Eventually, it was discovered that Lindsay had thyroid cancer. The diagnosis came a few weeks later, during an ultrasound that examined both her neck and heart. Doctors spotted thyroid nodules that turned out to be cancerous.

Once the cancer was identified, things moved quickly. Lindsay had to undergo surgery to remove her thyroid, and doctors found that the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes.

Now, Lindsay is sharing her story to raise awareness and hopefully help others who might be in a similar situation, struggling to be believed and properly diagnosed.

She said: “I felt like I wasn’t being heard, and that’s the issue with invisible illness is that people can’t see it.”