Mom Of Three's 'Mosquito Bites' End Up Landing Her In The Hospital

In late 2018, a physical therapist noted two dots on Heather Cramer's armpit. “They were kind of like mosquito bites,” she later told Today. Heather didn't worry because she already had a doctor's appointment on the calendar for February, so she held off getting the skin bumps looked at. For the mom, life continued.

In the weeks that followed, Heather enjoyed life with her husband and three sons. She worked as the school treasurer and CFO for Marion Local Schools and was a part of the St. John Lutheran Church in Celina. She was also very active with her kids' lives and their love of baseball.

Heather went to the doctor's appointment in February. The two bumps on her armpit never went away, which confirmed they weren't bug bites. She couldn't ignore them. “Make sure you’re getting checked," she told Today. "If people feel like they’ve got an issue, go to the doctor right away.”

The doctor, however, didn't see a problem. While the bites definitely did not come from bugs, the doctor didn't think they were anything to be concerned about. Heather seemingly accepted the non-diagnosis, likely relieved to have been given a clean bill of health. Once again, life continued... then she got nervous.

By April, the "mosquito bites" hadn't gone away. “I started to freak out,” Heather said. She made an appointment with a different doctor, probably thinking that a second opinion couldn't hurt. After all, just four years earlier, she'd endured a major health battle.

That battle started after she breastfed her youngest son. During a routine self-examination, she felt a lump on her left breast. Again, she wasn't overly worried at the time. Her mother had had a benign cyst at the same age (34), so she figured the odds were high that the doctor would find the same thing.

She soon went to the doctor to address the lump, and he found "a spot that he was concerned about," Heather said, "so he wanted them to check out that area on a mammogram. It was like a 50 percent chance it was cancer.” But the results left Heather stunned.

“I didn’t really have any other risk factors. I didn’t have any of the genes for breast cancer,” she said. “I wasn’t overweight. I nursed all my three children for a year. I exercised. I started having children before the age of 30. I didn’t have my first period before I was 11. I was pretty surprised I did have cancer.”

Heather's physician, Dr. Sagar Sardesai, is a medical oncologist at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. He told Today, “We are noticing an upward trend in younger women with a breast cancer diagnosis and so far the reason for that is not entirely clear... It has been associated with lifestyle factors that have to do with estrogen exposure.”

The test results said the lump was an invasive ductal carcinoma, and Heather needed a mastectomy right away. She scheduled the surgery for January 2014, not realizing that this was only the beginning of a long, long nightmare.

During the operation, surgeons noticed that the cancer had spread all the way to Heather's lymph nodes. Treatment plans became more intense. She needed 16 weeks of chemotherapy, more radiation, a bilateral mastectomy, and other surgeries if she wanted to win the fight.

Her life likely became a blur of doctors' appointments, harsh medicines, and long treatments. Heather kept her loved ones close. “It’s like, ‘Okay. It’s time to go. I’ve got to get through this day for my kids and my husband,’” she said. “I do it for them.” She fought hard — and saw promising results.

Scans started to turn up clean. With a rigorous dedication to treatment and a tireless effort, Heather beat cancer and returned to a normal life. She did continue to suffer as a result of her radiation treatments. Some of her tissue was irradiated, which led her to see a physical therapist — the same one that spotted the bumps on her armpit.

It was likely with this medical history in mind that Heather sought a second opinion on the "mosquito bites." She had been so blindsided by the breast cancer diagnosis that she dreaded to think what these bumps could be. But the first doctor's look turned up negative — maybe the spots were nothing?

But when the biopsy results returned, Heather was devastated. She tried to remain positive. “There’s hope,” she said. “If you surround yourself with people that love you and build you up and keep you positive and pray for you and help you stay connected spiritually. That helps.”

Her cancer was back, this time taking a more aggressive form that eventually spread to her brain, lungs, and lymph nodes. “It’s scary,” she said. “It’s a tough road. I know they’re trying to say breast cancer is more of a chronic disease, but it’s hard to look at it like that.” This time around, she knew what she needed to do.

“I was considered metastatic," Heather said. "Stage 4." Sixteen weeks of chemotherapy wasn't going to be enough. “I have my crying fits,” she said. “I think that people with cancer should know that, too, you have a right to scream and cry and get it all out. I can’t hold it in all the time.”

Sadly, Heather ultimately passed away from her sickness on July 15, 2021. She is survived by her loving husband and sons. Although she is gone, she will not soon be forgotten by the many lives she touched, both in and outside of her community. She was a fearless champion against a deadly disease that is still yet to have a cure.

Though Heather discovered her sickness too late, news anchor Victoria Price found that in a frighteningly similar situation, her life was miraculously spared. Victoria had been working for NBC for less than two years when the worldwide quarantine brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As her work ramped up in the news station, her health suffered... big time. And yet, if it weren't for one hawk-eyed viewer, Victoria never would have noticed.

Victoria Price was unaware that her health was compromised. Her entire Florida news team was working long hours, day and night, with no intentions of slowing down. If she wanted to keep her position, she'd have to keep her composure. In fact, she prided herself on it.

"As a journalist, it's been full throttle since the pandemic began," Price said on her Instagram. "We were covering the most important health story in a century, but my own health was the farthest thing from my mind." That is, until a viewer chimed in.

After a long day of newscasting, Price logged into her email to discover a message from a concerned viewer. Her words for Price were so jarring that the news anchor was quite concerned.

The woman writing the email noted that Price's neck looked abnormally swollen. While she wasn't a doctor, the viewer told the news anchor she might want to visit a doctor and get her throat checked out. Of course, Price was skeptical.

At first, Price hoped the viewer was mistaken. She wasn't feeling ill, after all. Sure, her throat was a bit sore, but her job was to speak all day long. A little hoarseness was expected. Still, she decided to give her doctor a call.

Price explained to her doctor that she had no symptoms other than a swollen throat. Her doctor informed her that, even though she was mostly asymptomatic, she should pay him a visit. Frightened by his foreboding words, Price set up an emergency appointment right away.

Price showed up to her doctor's office, masked-up and ready for anything. He took a look at her thyroid and, after a few moments, confirmed her fears; Price had developed thyroid cancer in the middle of her neck. The news got even worse.

While cancer is typically a disease that develops within our bodies, there are certain types that can be seen from the outside. The most common of these visible cancers could be hiding right under your nose. Well... perhaps a little lower than that.

The most common symptoms of thyroid cancer include a swollen neck, pain up to the ears, and trouble swallowing. However, these can also be signs of a standard sore throat. Bad news kept piling up.

Thyroid cancer can spread like wildfire. Once past the thyroid, it can spread far enough to cause irreversible damage. Unfortunately, Price's cancer had already begun to spread into her lymph nodes — but had it gone too far?

Thankfully, Price's doctor said she was lucky. Her cancer had just begun its attack on her lymph nodes, which means the viewer might have caught it just in time! However, there was still a chance of complications, as Price was going to need throat surgery.

Thankfully, Price was very positive about her outcome. She was expected to only need one surgical treatment with no chemotherapy or additional procedures. To help calm her nerves, she decided to post about her diagnosis on social media and was instantly bombarded with questions!

Price received tons of love and personal stories from her followers, plus an array of inquiries regarding her diagnosis. One user pointed out that they couldn't see the lump at all, to which Price responded with an insightful point.

“It’s not super obvious unless you know what to look for," said Price, who then took a photo from a new angle. This helped her followers fully understand what the viewer saw — and what to look for themselves. So, how did Price's surgery go?

On the day of her surgery, Price posted a photo of her self in recovery, enjoying a popsicle. “Aside from a little stiffness, soreness, and weakness, I’m feeling pretty great," she said. As she healed, Price continued sharing about her experience on Instagram. She even claims that the surgery was the easiest part!

"Prior to my thyroidectomy, a lot of people told me “the surgery is the easy part!” I didn’t understand that at first. Now I do." Price gave her followers a crash course about her months-long process of recovery, even sharing some not-safe-for-work photos. Her prognosis?

“It’s not a death sentence, but it’s a life sentence," says Price, who will forever be in recovery. "I’ll be on levo and need to balance these levels for the rest of my life... I may be scarred, but I ain’t scared. Take care of each other. A little kindness went a long way for me.”