34-year-old woman with terminal cancer reveals five warning signs she ignored

Cancer often develops silently in early stages showing subtle signs of its presence that are at times confused for other illnesses. There are no fixed signs and symptoms of the deadly illness and the location of the tumour may play an important role in what a patient may experience.
Linda Chavez, 34, who for years at a stretch, brushed aside her seemingly common symptoms like coughing, headache, fatigue, pain in bones, and nausea for other conditions could not have prepared herself for a terminal cancer diagnosis, that too at such a young age. Even doctors mistook these symptoms for minor conditions. She has been diagnosed with lung cancer called

Metastatic Bronchial Carcinoma

, a stage four, and terminal cancer.
The mother of two shared on TikTok (@theterminalcancershow) the warning signs of her cancer. Apart from lung, she also experienced brain cancer symptoms as her disease had spread to the brain over the course of months or years.

While lingering infection and allergies are the common reasons behind an extended cough, one that lasts for over 8 months needs to be taken seriously as it may indicate a serious disease. In Chavez’s case, she ‘had a cough for years’ which she ignored.
From mild to painful, the cough worsened with time. “Eventually it was deeper, it felt very painful and it felt piercing in my chest,” she said.

2. Shooting pain in bones

Injuries, health conditions, and tumours are often responsible for bone pain. Chavez regularly had pulsating pain in her bones and she said she constantly felt the pain like she had just stubbed her toe, except in all the bones in her body.

Chavez, unaware of what’s happening inside her body, failed to find out that the cancer was actually spreading around her body and no longer restricted to her lungs.

3. Headache

Chavez woke up with a headache every morning for nine straight months and she took painkillers to manage the pain.
It is to be noted that headache isn’t reported in case of lung cancers usually and in her case, it was due to the cancer that had also spread to her brain, as well as her spine, lymph nodes and adrenal gland.

4. Fatigue

Fatigue is not only a common symptom of cancer but also of many health conditions. The young lady couldn’t understand why she had been ‘exhausted beyond belief’.
She also felt pain while breathing. “I literally had to take shallow breaths due to the pain I was feeling every time I was inhaling or exhaling.”

5. Nausea

Nausea isn’t something one associates with cancer, especially lung cancer, but it is a sign that her cancer had metastasized to the brain.
Chavez mentioned how she ‘was definitely very very nauseous towards getting diagnosed’.
“It was due to the brain cancer, apparently a lot of my brain mets (metastasis), are on my right frontal lobe which controls like hunger, cravings, nausea, and all that.”
Meanwhile, the young woman has been fighting for her survival and has raised over $40,000 in a fundraiser on GoFundMe organised by her brother-in-law.
In an update on the page, her brother-in-law has mentioned she had developed ‘leptomeningeal dissemination disease’, which is when the cancer travels to the cells of the fluid in her brain.
Following this she had been discharged from hospital for ‘labs, procedures, and a rigorous new infusion regime’.
“It’s no doubt the kids and family, friends, and even social media followers breathe life into Lin and her fight.
“To those who know Lin, she’s a fighter through and through and won’t go down without fighting the good fight,” read the update on the page.