Woman’s bad pancake decision leads to hospitalization and cancer diagnosis.
"TIFU by eating a pancake that went bad in my car and discovering I had cancer."
I live in Texas and it was a hot summer day, and like the absolute genius I am, I left two pancakes in my car. It must have been there from 10 am to about 6 pm as I was doing quite a bit of errands and shopping, long enough that it basically slow-cooked itself in the sweltering heat.
Now, instead of throwing it away like a normal person, my dumb ass thought, Hey, this is fine, right? I ate one of the pancakes when I got home and put the other in the fridge.
Next morning I felt a little off but hey it is what it is. I pulled the leftover pancake from the fridge, took a bite and realized it tasted a lil funny. I chalked it up to bad fridge taste. I went out with family to a buffet and felt kinda off, a little confused and not very hungry. I drank a lot of sprite and ate some shrimp but felt like I got hit by a truck.
A few hours later, right before bed, my body was like, We’re gonna make you regret every decision you’ve ever made. I got hit with the worst fever, chills, and pain imaginable. You know when you feel so bloated you know you need to throw up to feel better?
I struggled to get comfortable in bed and it hit me, i need to throw up like right now. I made it to the bathroom just in time to throw up a pink sludge. Perfect. I thought i could just go back to bed at this point but n o p e.
I must have thrown up at least eight times. My throat was absolutely raw at this point it was 2 in the morning. I had work in a few hours but I had this feeling where I just felt like I was dreaming and I was pretty confused.
I let my family know, hey I think I need to go to urgent care. Turns out, I had severe sepsis. Ended up being moved to the hospital where they kept me for a week hooked up to IV antibiotics, feeling like death itself.
While they were running a bunch of tests and scans, the doctors were like, Hey, you’ve got cysts on both ovaries. Might wanna check that out.
But wait, there’s more! During the scans, they also found a weird lytic bone lesion on my hip and femur.
More tests, more scans, and surprise!—I had multiple myeloma. And those ovarian cysts? Long story short, surgery happened this past week, and I lost both my ovaries. Turns out, those cysts weren’t just cysts. They were teratomas—aka creepy tumor babies that had hair. Sizes of lemons. Both of them.
So, to recap:
My incredibly dumb decision to eat a sun-baked pancake somehow led to finding out I had two ovarian monsters and cancer.
If I hadn’t gotten sepsis and ended up in the hospital, I wouldn’t have known until way later, and things could have been much worse. So, in the most messed-up way possible, that stupid pancake might have actually saved my life.
Here were the top rated comments from readers in response to the OP’s post:
Yeah, you’re damn lucky you went to hospital and they discovered all the other things wrong with you.
EweweweCat (OP)
The funny thing was I had been complaining to my doctors for over a year prior to all this that I had been feeling sick! I had been losing weight and constantly tired but I got told to have a healthier lifestyle! Absolutely grateful to that damn pancake. But still can't look at a shrimp without getting queasy.
Luckily you found out about the creepy tumor babies before the pain started. It. Is. AWFUL. Took 3 ER visits for them to finally take mine out, only lost one ovary. Mine also had hair…and brain tissue 😬 Speedy recovery to you friend ❤️
EweweweCat (OP)
Brain tissue?!?!? Oh my! I asked the surgeon like three times to take pictures because I wanted to see them! They're gnarly! In my post surgery loopiness I was telling the nurses I needed proof to put them as dependents on my taxes 😅
Best mess up, ever. The universe was on your side. I'm sorry you got ill, and I'm sorry for your diagnosis, but I'm glad you found out in time and neither of those issues is a worst case scenario. I'm hoping that the universe stays on your side and you have a full recovery. Good luck and take care of yourself.
Lucky it was found at this stage, sorry about the loss of the ovaries through all that trauma too, hopefully that isn't too big a problem. Were they able to save any eggs etc?
EweweweCat (OP)
We decided to ultimately not to. It's considered as a non-covered procedure with my insurance and the cost of freezing and saving eggs was quite a bit out of my budget. But I never really planned to have kids of my own so it should be okay.
I know someone who went to the doctor after throwing up after drinking because that wasn’t the norm… turn out he had meningitis that lead to a scan that reveled he had a brain aneurysm that could have popped at any point. Crazy the things that save you.
I'm actually amazed they tested and scanned your entire body! Everything is so localised usually, so things get missed. You were very lucky :)
EweweweCat (OP)
I had to fight tooth and nail for that! My family practice doctor said the lytic bone lesion was more than likely benign because I was so young. I bothered then constantly until he gave in and said I could have a referral to an oncologist.
I set up my own appointment with the best one I could find I had to travel pretty far but he took a look at the CT and said it was more than likely benign but wanted to do a full body bone scan with tracer to be on the safe side.
It was denied by my insurance and I had to call up my insurance and submit my own paperwork along with the doctors notes and a letter stating I really needed this. I'm extremely grateful to that oncologist for fighting for the approval as well and the office.