My uncle went to the dentist complaining of bit of bleeding in his gums. The dentist immediately sent him to get blood tests done and the next day he was diagnosed with leukaemia. Three days later he passed away.

Like Arthur Kane, bass player for the New York Dolls. Goes to the hospital thinking he has the flu, is diagnosed with leukemia, 2 hours - HOURS - later, he dies.

i wonder how much effect the psychological shock has on the body.

you hear these types of stories more often than of ones where people die of cancer not knowing they had cancer

If you haven't seen the movie "New York Doll," about Kane's interesting life trajectory, I recommend it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436629/

I caught that movie already started on a TV channel once and saw like the last third of it. I didn't know the band, and all the while I thought it was a parody similar to Spinal Tap. It wasn't until the ending that I realized everything was a true story.

Last time I went to the doctor with extreme flu like symptoms (Pretty sure I had pneumonia) the doctor treated me like I was wasting her time and actually ridiculed me. Hearing stuff like this stresses me the heck out.

This was the often praised UK NHS btw

I had a doctor be dismissive and rude for coming in with a huge crater blister (from climbing) on my foot that had become infected, hot to the touch, and too painful for me to walk. This was in America, and I had good health insurance. As crappy as the Tories are making the NHS, it's still better than what we have.

I got to my (Dutch) doctor for far smaller things than these. Really trivial stuff. But I go because I'm not sure what it is and I prefer to be on the safe side. I'm always taken seriously, even when it's nothing.

I guess the Dutch system is not so bad after all. Or maybe you've got bad luck in that doctor, and I'm fortunate to have a good one. There's always some bad apples in every group.

I think I'd change doctors if I were you.

To be fair, people having unhealthy lifestyle - especially those drinking are feeling terrible all the time - may just think this is how healthy person should feel and miss any symptoms of the potential disease.

By the time you notice the symptoms, in a serious way, you're unfortunately already as good as gone. :(

How do you find out you have it if it is asymptomatic? Should we be getting blood tests for leukemia right along? Or is it too rare to consider...?

Similar thing happened to my father. He was flossing and his gums wouldn’t stop bleeding. Long story short he went to the hospital and was intubated due to breathing difficulties.

His cancer had been in remission, but unfortunately it evolved into a much more aggressive form of plasma cell leukemia. He passed away within that week.

Absolutely. A month ago my step father was given 6-12 months. 11 days ago he passed away.

Good lord I'm sorry for your loss.

It's shockingly common, too. A close family friend saw progress from an experimental treatment against stage 4 pancreatic cancer (she basically stole some eighteen months of her life back; this cancer at this stage is notorious for being a quick and agonizing death sentence), but despite success in shrinking the metastasized tumor population down to just one, she had the misfortune of her cancer mutating such that the treatment was no longer effective.

She was felled two weeks after that discovery.

I'm so, so dreadfully sorry for your loss.

I'm sorry for your loss.

A friend of mine lost his partner like that. It was a complication caused by the medication he was prescribed to treat the lymphoma.

My parents went hiking/camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Dad was having trouble swallowing. On returning, they went to the doctor and he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He seemed the picture of health. In 5 weeks he died.

Sorry for your loss.

There are some complications of cancer that cause rapid deterioration. The reason why this happens to some people and not others is not well understood. One of the more common rapidly fatal complications is disseminated intravascular coagulation, where the cancer stimulates widespread blood clotting that consumes all the normal clotting factors and results in bleeding which can easily be fatal.

It is perhaps not so well understood that a cancer is not 'part of the person'. Our notions of good health presuppose the concept of a united system of physiological functions. Cancer doesn't follow this rule. It is an invasive, foreign organism who's singular purpose is to keep growing no matter what. It is less sophisticated than a virus in that respect. Assessed on a genomic level, you may have less in common with your cancer than you do with your neighbor.

My grandmother's condition also was stable for a long time before warning signs started showing and she had to go back in for treatments. Her condition deteriorated within the span of 2 or so weeks before passing away.

Cancer sucks.

Happened to an uncle of mine at a similar age (a little younger). He had a few months at most from the first symptom. Really tragic

DLBCL is a very aggressive disease with a 5-year survival of ~60%. he was a relapse case from 2009. I'd say he took great care of his condition to have extended his survival to almost 10 years.

"Recently" can mean anything from now or months. It could be he only went public much later when the full details and scope of the disease came out - no use fearmongering at the first sign of trouble when the doctors haven't had time to assess prognosis.

It depends on a lot of things, his age will have been a factor in a poorer prognosis - generally if you get it > 60 (or it recurs) it's not great: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/detection...

Yes, a neighbor seemed perfectly fine, found out he had cancer and was dead less than a week later. He was in his mid-40s.

Some cancers are slow, some are fast. My mother died a few weeks after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is always a fast killer. I'm glad we got to do some things together as a family in those last few weeks.

Two weeks is the questionable speed record in my family. From 'hm, why do I almost black out when I sneeze or cough' to funeral.

non-Hodgkin's isn't typically that rapidly fatal, unlike other types of cancer. my guess is some sort of complication from treatment