Girl's unexplained bruisings turned out to be symptom of blood cancer

Serious medical conditions can often come without warning. In some cases however, the warning symptoms can seem insignificant and be easily dismissed.

For example, seemingly non-serious occurrences such as itchy skin or poor vision or even to wake up with swollen face, could actually signal that there's something serious going on with your body.

A report by Mirror, recounts how spotting bruisings on a little girl, led her parents to realise she actually had a serious medical condition.

Bruising and fatigue could be symptoms of this

Poppy was 4-years-old when her mother Shannon Sheehan noticed that she had swelling on her skin, that appeared out of nowhere. Along with this, the little child also experienced fatigue.

The mother took her to see a doctor asap, where they discovered that she had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is a type of white blood cell cancer.

As per Medical News Today, leukaemia happens due to the growth of abnormal white blood cells. It disrupts the production of healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, which is important because it enables blood to clot.

Poppy is now undergoing a gruelling hemotherapy treatment and blood transfusions to fight her disease.

Skin symptoms in leukaemia

As per Medical News Today, leukaemia can happen with a whole host of symptoms, among which there are several skin symptoms. These could be in the following form:

Petechiae and purpura

These are spots on the skin caused by blood capillaries breaking under the skin. They are red, purple, or brown and could look like rash. To distinguish between a rash and petechiae, when you press down on petechiae, the skin will not change colour, but if you press down a rash, the skin turns white.

Skin bruising and bleeding easily

With leukaemia, the skin also tends to bruise very easily, and bleed easily too. This is because blood clots aren't able to form as it does in a healthy body.

Leukemia cutis

These are bumps on the skin that could look like rash. They appear as papules on the skin, nodules that feel firm or rubbery or plaques.

These symptoms are by no means exhaustive, and are only some of the skin symptoms that can be observed with leukaemia.

Read more:

⋙ ‘I felt incredibly dismissed’: This woman’s ovarian cancer symptoms went unnoticed

⋙ Ovarian cancer: Easy-to-miss signs to watch out

⋙ You can actually smell this cervical cancer symptom

Sources used:

Mirror: ' Girl's unexplained bruising turned out to be warning sign of devastating illness'

Medical News Today: ' Leukemia rash pictures and symptoms'