Louisiana woman ignores a lump for months because everyone told her not to worry. Months later, she has a 3.5-inch mass on her heart: ‘We need to get a PET scan’

TikTok creator Rylie Kuyper, 19, has been captivating millions of viewers by documenting her cancer journey with remarkable honesty, candor, and humor. The Louisiana State University student has earned widespread support for sharing the realities of treatment without losing her lighthearted personality. It all began with a single TikTok that has since been viewed more than 2.9 million times.

Kuyper explained that her symptoms initially seemed easy to dismiss. Cancer was never on her mind. She was constantly tired, but as a college athlete, she assumed that was normal. When her skin became itchy, she blamed allergies. As she began experiencing persistent shortness of breath, she convinced herself she was simply out of shape.

Eventually, she discovered a lump in her breast and decided it was time to see a doctor. Although she was advised to get a mammogram, she, her mother, and her doctor all believed it was likely fibrous breast tissue, so she never followed through with the test.

She underwent several tests

Two weeks later, however, she found another lump — this time on her neck. She contacted her athletic trainer, who helped arrange further testing. Ultrasounds confirmed the breast lump was indeed fibrous tissue, but the lump on her neck was a swollen lymph node that doctors wanted to investigate further.

Just two days later, she discovered a 3.5-inch mass in her chest.

That same day, she underwent several tests. The weekend passed with no answers, and by Monday she had returned to practice. Then, unexpectedly, a group of doctors arrived to speak with her during training.

They explained they were concerned and wanted to wait for a pathology report, which would take about 72 hours. That was the moment, Kuyper said, when she realized the situation could be serious.

As more tests came back, doctors told her they had found what she described as “basically a tennis ball on my heart,” adding that they couldn’t understand how she had continued competing at such a high level.

“We need to get a PET scan to find out how many lumps I have because my trainer found another one on my neck,” she recalled them saying.

In later videos documenting her journey, Kuyper said she immediately called her parents after receiving the news. Overwhelmed by everything that was happening, she simply wanted to go home and be with them.

She was eventually diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

As treatment progressed, Kuyper repeatedly credited the people around her for helping her through the ordeal.

“What stands out the most is how much those people were there for me,” she said. “I was a transfer and had only been there for three months, yet my new head coach and trainer held me while I cried, and Amy was comforting me and trying to make me laugh.”

She hasn’t lost her sense of humor

In one of her most recent videos, Kuyper headed to church wearing a headscarf. Laughing at herself, she admitted she wasn’t thrilled with how it looked. But since she was attending a healing and anointing prayer service, she joked that anyone who saw her would probably look at her head covering and think, “That one probably has it.”

It’s that ability to find humor in extraordinarily difficult circumstances that has made so many people continue following her journey.