How did I find out?

By pure luck (well, not really) .... but I did have symptoms I didn't realize. My spine is such an asshole that it landed me in the ER. I started having severe mid back pains (not something I have dealt with from moto crash or other reasons). The pain I was having was wrapping around my ribs and into my stomach so I went to ER to make sure it wasn't kidney or gall stones etc.

After the ER did some CT scans they found 3 things.

1. Tumor in my small ileum (basically the stretch of bowel between your large and small intestine).

2. A necrotic (dead), metastatic, mesentery lymph node not far from main mass.

3. Several masses on my liver. An MRI I had 2.5 years ago suggested "hemangiomas," which are very common benign cluster of blood vessels that do not grow at all (or grow super slow). The main liver mass was seen 2.5 years ago and was 1.7cm but now is around 4.5cm... oops.

ER suggested I see an Oncologist urgently so that's what I did like a good boy and this all got put into motion. Symptoms For years I have had "prickly face and neck."Kind of like when you have been out in the cold and you come inside... You get the feeling where your face/neck is hot and feel like all the hairs are standing up and almost itchy. I always thought this was stress induced. Turns out that its the most common symptom of "carcinoid syndrome" along with a shitty stomach (umm hello) and abdominal pain. Those that know me well, know that I have been complaining about pain in my lower right side (liver and small intestine area) FOREVER. 2.5 years ago I saw a doc, had ultrasound, and them MRI. They came back and told me i had some "things" on my liver and that they were completely benign. MOVE ON. do not follower up.....nada... This really pisses me off. Boy, it would have been so much easier to deal with all of this pre moto fuckery. Moral of the story.... You know your body. You know when something is wrong. Dont take no for an answer and push back.. I knew something was up with my abdominal pain for year and let it go. Dont take small symptoms or signs for granted.... They say I have likely had these masses for 10-15 years!! Sorry for the dump here.... Feel like it gives some context to the overall picture for those asking.