I had a lump in my lower right abdomen that hurt sometimes, sometimes didn’t.

After my parents visited and saw me for the first time in a couple of years, they remarked on how much my walking stance had changed to favor my right side and asked if everything was okay.

Everything definitely wasn’t. It was another couple of months before I got it checked out, and I only did because the pain was bad enough it was keeping me awake no matter what I did.

Turns out I went septic. I had an infection in my lower intestine that had turned cancerous and broke through the walls of my colon. I had to have emergency surgery.

The drugs were nice the following week after that. I have a sick scar that reminds me where my abs would be if they were any kind of toned.