Man discovers malignant tumor while treating big toe pain

A 42-year-old man named Richard Bernstein had been experiencing pain in his right big toe for five years and thought he had fractured the area, but was diagnosed with a large tumor in his kidney and a tumor thrombus — a tumor that extends to a blood vessel.

According to the New York Post and a record made by the portal g1, Bernstein went to podiatrists and physical therapists for two years, but they never found any problems with his bones. He then went to a sports medicine specialist, who suspected spinal stenosis, which can put pressure on nerves in the spine.

But the symptoms soon started to get worse and he began to experience pain in his ankle. In March of this year, when her leg started to swell, the doctor ordered an abdominal exam, which revealed the tumor.

The exam, referred to a urologist, also identified a thrombus (blood clot) that grew through the renal vein and filled the vena cava, which drains blood to the heart, and had 99% of the coronary arteries blocked, in addition to the liver almost going into bankruptcy.

According to the director of urology at Phelps Hospital, in the state of New York (USA), Michael Grosso, the blockage of veins due to the tumor and the thrombus was what explained the pain in the foot, since the symptoms of liver cancer usually appear at an advanced stage of the tumor.

According to Bernstein, the doctor had said he had four days to live. Fortunately, after 12 hours of complex surgery, the tumor and thrombus were removed and a heart bypass was performed.

With the tumor removed, doctors have ruled out, for now, the need for chemotherapy in Bernstein, who is already walking alone and is recovering from surgery.