How I Knew Something Was Wrong + Story Leading Up to My Diagnosis

This is something I haven't really addressed yet but I feel could be useful and important to people which is how I knew something was wrong - not specifically knowing it was cancer but knowing something was not how it should be and also how my concerns were dealt with before a final diagnostic was made.

For years I had this ache in my knee, feeling more towards the inner side and the back, it would ache and be difficult to walk straight after sitting for a certain period and upon standing up I would have to take a few moments to straighten my leg and move it before being able to walk comfortably. Another thing would be when sat next to someone, if they were to put their hand on my knee to help themselves up, as people do, it would be excruciating and I would actually scream out sometimes. This is of course when I knew I had SOMETHING wrong in my knee area.

I went to doctors on several occasions regarding it and would just have it dismissed as "general aches and pains" "carrying too much weight" "poor footwear" etc etc. Taking this on board I would vary my footwear, went to the gym and tried to lose some weight (even though I'm not particularly huge) and it never went away. Due to being dismissed on such a number of occasions I just decided to ignore it myself and took it as that's the way its meant to be, until one day after I had changed doctors due to moving I received a phone call asking me to make an appointment and come in, so I did. I was sat in the waiting room, the doctor that was seeing me was running late, I didn't even know why I had to be there so I was even thinking of leaving before my name was called. Then once entering the doctors room the doctor prompted to ask me "Right Jessica, what brings you here today?", I was baffled, I explained that I had received a phone call to make an appointment, bla bla, she checked my records and couldn't find any problems so more or less the appointment was over however I decided to give this issue with my knee one last shot and told her about it. Her initial reaction began the same as the previous doctors but she then asked what it is like when I sleep, I explained its very hard to get comfy to fall asleep due to the stiffness and aching of it, after that she decided to send me for an MRI scan however only to "rule things out" still thinking there wasn't anything too serious.

The MRI scan came back and doctors at the hospital initially diagnosed it as a cyst, I began to read upon this at home and it did sound incredibly similar to the symptoms I had, particularly the baker's cyst, so I accepted this. I was then made an appointment to have a guided ultrasound injection i.e. have it drained. This experience as mentioned in one of my very first posts was probably the most painful thing I have endured, even more painful than the after effects of surgery! Of course nothing came out as we later found it was a solid mass of a tumour after taking a biopsy and that is what began my cancer journey.

This whole process listed above went on for years if counting the times of being dismissed but then around 7-8 months from the very first MRI scan before I was eventually diagnosed.