In 2022, Texas woman Lisa Monk was told that she had clear cell angiosarcoma, a type of blood cancer, and that at best she had 15 months to live.
The doctors began aggressively treating her cancer with chemotherapy, which included all the horrible side effects like hair loss, pain, and the inability to keep food down.
However, on one of her visits with a nurse practitioner, she got some unexpected news.
"I underwent a total of two rounds of chemotherapy and the Friday before I went in for my third round, I went to visit my doctor and just again, a routine appointment, just checking in before we go in for round three," Monk said. "The nurse practitioner was reading my file and talking to me, asking me about all my symptoms, all the nausea and vomiting and all the things that come with chemo."
Monk added, "She just suddenly stopped talking and she got a horrified look on her face. She said she had to get the doctor real quick. She ran out of the room, left me alone for about 15 minutes and the doctor came back in and told me that I never had cancer."
It was all a vascular issue with her spleen.
She had never had cancer.
And it wasn't just the chemotherapy she had suffered through, Monk had been preparing for her death.
"It wasn't just me that went through all of this. I am a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, a daughter, a friend," Monk said. "My children were preparing for my death. I was writing goodbye letters to them for the graduations that I wouldn't be at, the babies that I would never see, and the weddings that I would never attend."
The poor woman was understandably upset.
On top of all that, she's been saddled with a bunch of unnecessary medical bills.
But the part that made her really mad was the doctors' response.
"They told me congratulations."
She's now on a quest to share her story and make sure someone else doesn't go through this.
"It makes you wonder how many other mistakes are out there. How many times has someone been misdiagnosed or how many reports are sitting in someone's inbox not being read because the doctors are too busy or there's too many tests being run?" Monk said. "I don't think that I can change the world because frankly, I don't think I'm that special. But maybe I change their policies."
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