The Girl who was always awake and never slept

Christina Speirs, 22, of New York, exercised almost every single day, taught yoga and stayed in top shape. What she thought was a product of drinking too much water turned out to be a cancerous tumor growing inside her.

‘I had a lot of energy,’ Ms Speirs said. ‘I wasn't sleeping... I was always on the go, I was never tired.’
Ms Speirs thought the high amounts of water she was drinking caused her to wake up often during the night, so she did nothing about it until a medical
exam made a shocking discovery.

Doctors discovered last fall that her blood pressure was high, ‘through the roof’ high, but her potassium levels were low – it stumped them.
‘That really freaked me out because them not knowing what's wrong with me, they're doctors, you know?’ Said Ms Speirs.
After ruling out a heart condition, doctors checked her kidneys at the urging of her mother.
The sonogram stumped doctors as well, it appeared she had one combined kidney, throwing the co-ed into further panic as she was whisked to an MRI.
The MRI showed she had two kidneys, but instead she horrifyingly had a tumor almost the size of a grapefruit growing inside her.
‘I was in complete shock,’ Ms Speirs recalled to ABC, saying she called her parents because she needed surgery. ‘Then, I got so upset honestly. I had no idea where this came from.’

Doctors removed the tumor, stage 2 cancer. Described as adrenal cortical carcinoma, the tumor was growing on her liver – it affects one in several hundred thousand people, Ms Speirs’ doctor told ABC.

She is now cancer-free, but takes medication to stay that way. One of the side effects of the medication happens to be drowsiness – she can’t do hot yoga
anymore, but now she can sleep.