Symptoms of Cancer

I don't believe there is any person or family left untouched by the devastating effects of the silent killer, cancer. It seems to have reached out to embrace anyone that it could get its ugly arms around.

I will never forget that day, when as a child I walked home from school to find my dad's car sitting in the driveway. He was never home in the middle of the afternoon, so I knew that something was up. I walked into the house, and both of my parents were crying. My grandma; dad's mom had just died of cancer.

Other than the fact that I knew cancer was a bad thing, I didn't even know what cancer was, but over the years I would learn. It seems like cancer was quite fond of my family. It has taken the lives of many of my loved ones, and when I became older I felt it was my responsibility to learn about cancer and its symptoms.

Cancer is a expansive term that takes in many different types. And even though each type of cancer has its own characteristics, there as some symptoms and characteristics that are common in many different cancers.

Weight Loss

Many of us will periodically go on a diet and exercise to help our bodies loose extra weight, but when the body starts loosing weight for no apparent reason, it is time to see the doctor. Especially when cancer attacks the pancreas, stomach, esophages or lungs, the body begins to lose weight. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is cancer, but only a doctor and the tests that he will run, can make that determination.

Fatigue

When the body is always tired no matter how many naps are taken is what happens if cancer is causing a blood loss, or is affecting the colon or stomach. Fatigue can also happen as the cancer grows.

Pain

A headache that will not go away can be a symptom of a brain tumor, or severe back pain, when you have not injured your back in any way can be a symptom of cancer in the rectum, colon or ovaries. Pain can also be an early symptom of cancer in the bone or testicles. A lot of times, pain that is associated with cancer, is a symptom that the cancer has begun to spread from where it originally started; metastasized.

Fever

Having a fever is very common with cancer after it has begun to spread. It can also happen if the cancer attacks the immune system, because it makes it harder for the body to fight any type of infection.

Over the years, I have lost many of my loved ones because of cancer, but I have also had loved ones beat the disease because their doctors found the disease early. That is one of the reasons why regular physicals are so important.

Resources:

http://www.concer.about.com/od/causes/a/symptomscancer.htm/

http://wrongdiagnosis.com/c/cancer/symptoms.htm