Some diseases and illnesses are easy to diagnose.
If someone has a runny nose, sneezing, a sore throat, and a cough, they probably have the common cold or a closely related illness.
When someone always experiences gastrointestinal distress after eating a specific ingredient, they’re either allergic or sensitive to that ingredient.
But not all diseases and illnesses are this easy to spot.
Take, for example, mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that typically develops only as a result of prolonged exposure to asbestos.
This cancer sometimes takes years, or even decades to develop, only showing mild signs and symptoms until the cancer develops more aggressively.
Why is it so easy to overlook mesothelioma symptoms? And what can we do about it?
Table of Contents
Mesothelioma Symptoms
Let’s start by examining the most common mesothelioma symptoms:
Fluid buildup
There are a few different types of mesothelioma, based on where the cancer develops.
The most common type of this cancer exists in the lungs and around the chest cavity, but you can also develop mesothelioma around the abdomen or in the lining around your heart.
Wherever this cancer develops, there will probably be a buildup of fluid.
Localized pain
People with mesothelioma also experience a dull, persistent pain in the affected area.
If you have pleural mesothelioma, you’ll feel this pain in your lungs and chest, and it might be painful to breathe.
Peritoneal mesothelioma introduces pain in your stomach and abdomen, potentially making it harder to eat.
And in pericardial mesothelioma, you’ll experience pain in your heart and chest.
Frequent coughing
If you have mesothelioma in the lungs and chest cavity, you may experience a frequent dry cough.
The severity and frequency of your coughing will likely increase as the cancer develops.
Decreased appetite/weight loss
If you have mesothelioma in the abdomen, you may also experience a decreased appetite.
After some time, this decreased appetite can lead to significant weight loss.
Nausea and fatigue
People with all types of mesothelioma may experience nausea and fatigue, which can sometimes grow worse in response to treatment.
Why It’s Easy to Overlook Mesothelioma Symptoms
So why is it so easy to overlook these symptoms?
Common symptoms
For starters, many of these symptoms are mild enough and common enough that people don’t think much about them.
If you start experiencing a dry cough in winter, you might believe you only have a cold.
If you have soreness in the abdomen, you may think you’re dealing with a temporary stomach ache or some leftover soreness from your last ab workout.
Disease rarity
Only about 3,000 new mesothelioma cases are diagnosed each year, making it a rare form of cancer.
We typically assume that rare things will never happen to us, meaning we won’t be on the lookout for symptoms like these.
Additionally, most people are unfamiliar with the science and symptoms of mesothelioma because they’ve never had a loved one experience this illness.
Variable symptoms
It doesn’t help that there are many different types of symptoms and that people experience these symptoms differently.
One person with mesothelioma might have a weak, barely noticeable cough, while another one has a painful and overwhelmingly frequent one.
It’s hard to say exactly how your symptoms will manifest.
Multiple potentially affected areas
Mesothelioma always affects the lining around your organs, but it may affect the lining of different organs.
While most people with this cancer experience it in their lungs and chest, it’s also possible to develop it in the abdomen or the lining of your heart.
These different affected areas mean that symptoms can manifest in multiple areas of the body.
Gradual onset
The boiling frog apologue goes like this: if you put a frog into a pot of boiled water, the frog will immediately detect that the water is hot and attempt to jump out.
If you put a frog into a pot of cold water and gradually raise the temperature of that water to a boil, the frog won’t notice the temperature change, and might be boiled alive.
That’s because most creatures have a much easier time identifying a sudden change, as opposed to a gradual one.
Because these mesothelioma symptoms start very mildly and begin to increase in severity and frequency gradually, it can be difficult to notice.
What does this mean for you?
If you or someone close to you has potentially worked in conditions that could have exposed them to asbestos on a regular basis, you need to be especially aware of the risk of developing mesothelioma.
If the development of mesothelioma is a legitimate possibility, you need to pay close attention to the signs and symptoms of this disease, no matter how mild they are; talk to a doctor and get a diagnosis as early as possible.
