Natalie Sue didn’t think much about the cough that had been bothering her for two months. It was not uncommon for irritating symptoms to persist after a cold.
Until then, he produced something that looked like it belonged in a horror movie.
Mrs. Sue, a St. Petersburg beautician, Florida, saying On his podcast, he would never forget the day he first coughed up a blood clot the size of a thumb: it was Friday, May 13, 2022.
The next day, the mother of one drove to the emergency room.
Subsequent tests would reveal the family’s worst nightmare: he had four cancerous tumors ravaging his lungs.
But surprisingly, it wasn’t lung cancer. In fact, the disease could be traced back to a potentially fatal mole, which she had removed five years earlier.
Natalie Sue said on her podcast that her heart dropped when the doctor diagnosed her with stage 4 melanoma.
The beautician and beauty spa owner said she fought cancer for her son and husband (pictured left).
Ms Sue underwent multiple rounds of immunotherapy, was hospitalized for possible liver failure and endured six months of high doses of steroids.
In 2017, she visited the dermatologist for a suspicious mole on her neck, which was later discovered to be melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer that affects 100,600 Americans a year.
Further tests showed that the disease had not spread to other parts of the body and, after the mole was removed, he was given the all-clear.
Natalie moved on with her life, gave birth to her son, and expanded her business without much thought.
But now the disease had returned… and with force.
He said he will never forget the look on the face of the radiologist who performed the lung scans. She immediately knew something was wrong.
A subsequent biopsy revealed the disease had reached stage four and doctors said his chances of surviving for five years were around 30 per cent.
Mrs Sue said: ‘My heart sank. The first thing I say to my doctor is “Am I going to die?” and he said “I don’t know.”
“My whole world had just collapsed.”
When she called her family to tell them the news, they told her to cancel an upcoming trip to Mexico, which was intended as the family’s “last” vacation.
But she was determined to go, fearing that the trip might be her last.
Mrs. Sue said, “I thought we were going to Mexico.” I will not regret not having gone on this definitive vacation that we had planned for more than a year.
“We are going to have the best vacation of my life and I am going to enjoy it as if it were the last because I don’t know what is coming and I don’t know what is going to happen in my future.”
In 2017, Ms Sue underwent surgery to remove lymph nodes from her neck and test them for cancer after a dermatologist found a suspicious mole on her body.
In May 2022, Ms. Sue went to the emergency room after repeatedly coughing up blood clots.
Mother-of-one said cancer treatment made her so sick she couldn’t hold her son (pictured)
When the family returned from their trip, she faced eight months of multiple rounds of immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
Ms Sue said her treatment left her in constant pain and she could not function without painkillers.
“The treatment was brutal,” he said. “I felt so many aches and pains to the point that I remember lying on the couch in so much pain that I couldn’t even function without some type of ibuprofen in my body every four hours.”
After her last round of immunotherapy and chemotherapy, Ms Sue suffered from jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) and suffered liver failure. She had to immediately start high-dose steroids, which she took for several months.
Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that is less common than other types, but more dangerous, and in three percent of cases the primary source of the cancer is unknown.
She began treatment with four rounds of immunotherapy and chemotherapy, which left her in constant pain and unable to function without some form of pain medication.
When she was finally ready to talk about her diagnosis, she decided to post on Instagram in hopes of finding support and advice.
The American Cancer Society estimates that 100,600 people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2024, accounting for five percent of all new cancers, and 8,300 people will die from it, accounting for 1.4 percent of deaths. for cancer.
The overall lifetime risk of getting cancer is about three percent, or one in 33 people.
Rates of new melanomas vary: In people under 50, they have remained stable among women and have decreased about one percent annually in men since the early 2000s.
The five-year survival rate is 94 percent, but drops to 35 percent for melanomas that have spread.
Ms Sue said she received an outpouring of support after revealing her stage four melanoma diagnosis on Instagram.
Ms. Sue is an esthetician and beauty spa owner from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Earlier this month, Sue underwent scans to check her body for signs of cancer and was told they were completely clear.
Ms Sue’s “cold” began in 2022, with initial symptoms including a strained voice and incessant cough. She often needed water to quench an insatiable thirst.
There were fevers and colds, which she attributed to her son being exposed to new germs at school. But a cold and cough proved particularly difficult: they stayed there for two months.
He coughed so badly that he had to stay away from clients while performing treatments only to have coughing spells so bad they made tears run down his face.
Then, he vomited up the blood clot.
Sue said she decided to wait almost two months before telling loved ones about her diagnosis, hoping to find support and advice, but also give hope to people going through the same thing.
She revealed the news on Instagram and received an outpouring of support.
Surprisingly, in February 2023, Sue received the news she never thought she would hear.
After 276 days, four rounds of immunotherapy, a hospitalization for signs of liver failure, and six months of high-dose steroids, he was cancer-free.
‘I did it! I defeated stage 4 cancer,’ he posted on Instagram.
She said on her podcast: ‘I have no words. It’s just the thrill of knowing that I fought such a beast and overcame it. With my chances so low, not knowing if I was going to make it, not knowing if I was going to live, and sit here today and say that now I’m NED. [no evidence of disease] of cancer… it’s just an incredible feeling.’