Kelly Mann thought she had the worst conjunctivitis of her life.
Her eyes became red, the drops didn’t work, and the problem disappeared and returned in strange cycles for nearly two months. In Abilene, Texas, this university professor and mother of three had no idea that her body was sending her a silent warning. Everything changed one night while watching television: when she scratched her arm, she felt a lump. The next day, she went to the doctor, and after a mammogram and a biopsy, at age 35 she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, with a tumor that had grown from undetectable to 2.5 centimeters in just six weeks.
A friend of hers who was an ophthalmologist gave her the explanation. It wasn’t conjunctivitis, but episcleritis, an eye inflammation that in rare cases is associated with diseases such as cancer. “Your eye, as an organ, responds in unique ways to what is happening in your body”, Mann explains. Today, after chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and targeted therapies, she shares her story so that other women can recognize signs that traditional medicine still cannot fully explain.
