As a summer camp volunteer in 2022, Molly Smith spent long days in the woods. One day, she suddenly felt tingling in her hands and feet and visited a local emergency room. Doctor thought the then 20-year-old needed to consume more fluids.
“They told me it’s probably dehydration, drink a lot of electrolytes,” Smith, 22, tells TODAY.com. “So that’s what I did.
” When she returned home in Florida and then back to school at Yale, the pins and needles did not wane. During testing and examinations, doctors eventually found an ovarian cyst and Smith was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “(The numbness) does seem unrelated,” she says.
“It is very peculiar to all the doctors who have looked at it.” While Smith tried drinking more water, the neuropathy she felt in her hands and feet didn’t dissipate. At one point, she placed bags of ice on them to ease the prickling sensation.
“The numbness did not get any better. It honestly got much worse,” Smith says. “I was having a lot of issues like even walking long distances.
” Even when she returned to Yale the numbness continued and she wasn’t able to take dance classes or participate in dance team. The heaviness in her feet caused her to wobble, too. “I was having terrible balance,” she says.
Doctors felt unsure what caused this neurological symptoms and one suggested it was a combination of dehydration and carpal tunnel syndrome. “I thought that was pretty absurd,” Smith says. “My mom did, too, but we ke.