At the end of 2021, Courtney Liniweski from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, felt something was wrong. For months, she had back pain, but at first, she dismissed it and blamed it on sitting down for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was experiencing intermittent back pain but it was really sharp and intense,\u201d she told Unilad. \u201cIt was right below my shoulder blades, in the mid sternum area in my back. I just thought I wasn\u2019t moving enough and I was being lazy. I was sat down a lot for my job and I was at my desk most of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January, Courtney\u2019s symptoms increased, but they didn\u2019t seem to connect. She explained that she began losing hearing in her left ear and that her nose was always running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cweird symptoms\u201d didn\u2019t add up, and she understood something was wrong. In January 2022, Liniewski woke up from what was described as a loud bang in her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Per Newsweek, she explained that she was able to go back to sleep, but when she went to work in the morning as a crisis counselor at an inpatient psychiatric hospital, she noticed her face had drooped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A colleague of hers brought her to the emergency room, suspecting a stroke. However, the brain images came out fine. Liniewski had a history of migraine and anxiety, and she was sent home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She accepted the results, but a month later, everything changed. Courtney suffered from chest pain and couldn\u2019t even walk up a flight of stairs without losing her breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February, a month after first being sent to the emergency room, a vacation to Mexico saved her life, she explained. On the first morning, she woke up with a large lump on her neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy immune system was clearly reacting to travel or stress. I\u2019ve always been prone to getting sick when I travel, but this time it was like my body finally showed me something. The lump was about 4.1 cm, and it is what led to my diagnosis,\u201d Courtney Liniewski told Newsweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout it, I wouldn\u2019t have met the criteria typically associated with my type of cancer. I don\u2019t fit the demographic, since it usually affects elderly white men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liniewski was diagnosed with Grade 3B Follicular Lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It accounts for roughly 20 percent of cases in the United States. Usually, it\u2019s a slow-growing condition that affects adults, with an average age of 60, per the American Cancer Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without treatment, Courtney would\u2019ve died within a month. Luckily for her, it was treatable. Today, she is three years cancer-free but still has regular appointments with her oncologist as she fears the cancer could return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, the mom hopes her story can help others recognize unusual red flags and seek medical attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t stop pushing for it [a diagnosis] because cancer care has come a long way and people are surviving cancer significantly more than they used to,\u201d Courtney told Unilad. \u201cI think people should know that it\u2019s okay to advocate for yourself if something is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congratulations on being cancer-free, Courtney, and thank you for helping others. Please share this article on Facebook and spread Courtney Liniewski\u2019s story.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the end of 2021, Courtney Liniweski from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, felt something was wrong. For months, she had back pain, but at first, she dismissed it and blamed it on sitting down for too long. \u201cI was experiencing intermittent back pain but it was really sharp and intense,\u201d she told Unilad. \u201cIt was right below …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15174,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15172\/revisions\/15174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}