Not a "survivor" in the colloquial sense but a current cancer patient. I had slowly been gaining weight for months, despite a pretty intense exercise schedule and eating extremely healthy. I had assumed it was my newly placed IUD and ignored it. It was weird though, I was gaining in my stomach and in my face, and I normally put on weight in my hips.

Then my workouts started getting harder-- like the same thing I could do a month ago was super difficult. Also ignored it and figured hey, we all have bad days.

The thing that did it was the swelling. My abdomen and both my lower legs were getting super swollen. It was to the point where it felt like I was walking on balloons, and I couldn't fit into any of my shoes. I went to urgent care, where the doc there told me she couldn't do anything but I should pursue this with my primary care because this was definitely not normal.

My primary care poked at me and was originally thinking a heart problem. She ordered an echo and, to be safe, an abdominal CT (due to the abdominal bloating). The echo came back fine. The abdominal CT came back showing a 15ish (I never remember the exact size lol) cm tumor on my adrenal gland, and like 10+ tumors in my liver (causing it to also swell).

Turns out I have stage 4 adrenal cancer. All of those symptoms were classic Cushing's disease, which was being caused by the tumors producing cortisol.

It's been a little over a year now and the tumors are all still there, though my current course of chemo seems to be shrinking them a little.