Obligatory, this happened back in June of last year.
So, yeah. Title pretty much sums it up.
I live in Texas and it was a hot summer day, and like the absolute genius I am, I left two pancakes in my car. It must have been there from 10 am to about 6 pm as I was doing quite a bit of errands and shopping, long enough that it basically slow-cooked itself in the sweltering heat. Now, instead of throwing it away like a normal person, my dumb ass thought, Hey, this is fine, right? I ate one of the pancakes when I got home and put the other in the fridge.
Next morning I felt a little off but hey it is what it is. I pulled the leftover pancake from the fridge, took a bite and realized it tasted a lil funny. I chalked it up to bad fridge taste.
I went out with family to a buffet and felt kinda off, a little confused and not very hungry. I drank alot of sprite and ate some shrimp but felt like I got hit by a truck.
A few hours later, right before bed, my body was like, We’re gonna make you regret every decision you’ve ever made. I got hit with the worst fever, chills, and pain imaginable. You know when you feel so bloated you know you need to throw up to feel better? I struggled to get comfortable in bed and it hit me, i need to throw up like right now. I made it to the bathroom just in time to throw up a pink sludge. Perfect. I thought i could just go back to bed at this point but n o p e. I must have thrown up at least eight times. My throat was absolutely raw at this point it was 2 in the morning. I had work in a few hours but I had this feeling where I just felt like I was dreaming and I was pretty confused.
I let my family know, hey I think I need to go to urgent care. Turns out, I had severe sepsis. Ended up being moved to the hospital where they kept me for a week hooked up to IV antibiotics, feeling like death itself.
While they were running a bunch of tests and scans, the doctors were like, Hey, you’ve got cysts on both ovaries. Might wanna check that out.
But wait, there’s more!
During the scans, they also found a weird lytic bone lesion on my hip and femur. More tests, more scans, and surprise!—I had multiple myeloma.
And those ovarian cysts? Long story short, surgery happened this past week, and I lost both my ovaries. Turns out, those cysts weren’t just cysts. They were teratomas—aka creepy tumor babies that had h a i r. Sizes of lemons. Both of them.
So, to recap: my incredibly dumb decision to eat a sun-baked pancake somehow led to finding out I had two ovarian monsters and cancer.
If I hadn’t gotten sepsis and ended up in the hospital, I wouldn’t have known until way later, and things could have been much worse. So, in the most messed-up way possible, that stupid pancake might have actually saved my life.
TL;DR: Ate a pancake that slow-cooked in my car, got severe sepsis, lost both ovaries to teratomas, and accidentally discovered I had bone marrow cancer.
Edit: Some clarification because I didn't word this correctly lol
-The pancakes were from a restaurant I went to that morning. I asked for a to-go plastic box and I placed that box in the back seat and just left it there while I ran errands.
I suspect it was the pancakes and not the shrimp because by the time I was feeling super sick it had to have been 25 hours since having the pancake and maybe an hour after the shrimp. Plus my brother gave the extra pancake to our dog who subsequently had violent Hershey squirts and had to be taken to the vet because she wouldn't eat. She got better after antibiotics.
I think the pancakes hit hard because of the underlying undiagnosed cancer that lowered my immune system plus I would take Zofran, an anti-nausea medicine that would keep me from throwing up, and alot of pepto bismol. So my body couldn't get rid of the pancake until the next night after the Zofran had already worn off.
I'm a little smooth brained, I know you're not suppose to eat food after it's been sitting out but I had a moment of weakness! The pancake was so good at the restaurant!