A Texas mother says that she was diagnosed with cancer and even underwent chemotherapy, only to find out later that she did not have cancer after all.
According to the Daily Mail, 39-year-old Lisa Monk had gone to the hospital in 2022 due to stomach pains that she had suspected were kidney stones. She went through a series of tests during her appointment which showed that she had two kidney stones, as well as a mass on her spleen.
The mother of two then underwent surgery in January of 2023 to remove the mass.
According to reports, Monk stated that the spleen had been sent to three different pathology laboratories to be tested before a fourth one found it tested positive for a rare and terminal cancer called “clear cell angiosarcoma.”
The Mayo Clinic states that angiosarcoma is a type of cancer that develops on the lining of lymph and blood vessels. Regardless of age or gender, angiosarcoma is thought to have a poor prognosis despite current treatments.
“It was a blood vessel type of cancer found in the spleen and told me that the most optimistic thing he could say was to give me 15 months [to live],” Monk said. “It was a dark time.”
Monk then says what followed the diagnosis was an “aggressive” chemotherapy regimen.
Soon after, she was referred to another hospital and had her first round of chemotherapy in March 2023. After losing all of her hair, Monk explained that she underwent a second round of chemo that left her vomiting and with “silvery skin.”
“It was a very dark time. I was writing goodbye letters and letters to the grandchildren I would never meet and the weddings I would never attend.”
However, Monk said that during a routine appointment in April, a doctor informed her that she never had cancer and that the pathology report “was wrong.”
“I saw the nurse practitioner first and she just asked me about my symptoms and she was scrolling on the computer while she was talking to me,” Monk recalled. “All of a sudden she just stops talking and has this look on her face. She turned to me and looked completely horrified and told me she needed to get the doctor and then ran out of the room. She left me alone for about 15 minutes and the doctor came back in. He said a lot of medical lingo to me and then told me I didn’t have cancer.”
“The doctor then told me that I never had cancer. [At that moment] I looked like I had cancer and I felt like I had cancer as I was vomiting, I was sick and my skin was silvery because of the chemotherapy,” Monk said.
She continued, stating that the doctor then congratulated her for being cancer-free, rather than apologizing for the huge error.
“The doctor then congratulated me, which really bothered me,” Monk revealed. “At the time I was in shock but now I feel the more appropriate response would be ‘I’m sorry.’ I asked for a copy of their pathology report and I found a hallway to call my husband and tell him the news.”
Monk says she only discovered the pathology report was dated one month earlier when she looked at it at home. This means the hospital knew about it before her second round of chemotherapy, but they just did not inform her until the last appointment.
“I had had chemotherapy during this time and they could have told me a month earlier and I would have avoided the second round of chemotherapy if they had bothered to read their own pathology report,” Monk added. “[After being told I didn’t have cancer] I had to wait a couple of days and then it was confirmed to me that it was not cancer after having a discussion with all the doctors. In the end they determined that my spleen was going to rupture which is why it had the mass on it. It was just blood vessel activity and no cancer in it.”