Cautious woman carried carbon monoxide detector—but it was already too late

A health-conscious New York woman had made a habit of taking a carbon monoxide detector with her when she traveled, unaware that she was already battling another undetected illness.

Health is a common concern among Americans today. An American Psychiatric Association poll of just over 2,200 U.S. adults found that 55 percent were “very” or “somewhat” anxious about their health in 2026.

For the longest time, Jess Potter, from Rochester, struggled with health anxiety. It got to the point where she started taking a carbon monoxide detector with her when staying in hotels.

“Honestly, I just saw a lot of articles in the last few years about people dying in hotels from carbon monoxide, so I always bring mine,” she said. “I just have health anxiety and felt it was a silly thing to overlook.”

For the longest time, Potter’s health concerns were a matter of anxiety. But that all changed late last year. In October 2025, Potter was in the midst of a period of “about three months” during which she “just kept getting sick a lot.”

“I just thought it was bronchitis and the winter flu,” Potter said.

It got to a point, however, when the continued bouts of illness were impossible to ignore. Potter went to a doctor, and things escalated quickly from there.

“I had an enlarged lymph node in my neck and bronchitis,” Potter said. “After a few biopsies, they determined it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

Suddenly, all the health anxiety Potter had carried with her throughout her day-to-day life had become reality. It was a development she admits was “pretty difficult” to process.

“It kind of seemed like everything I always worried about finally happened,” Potter said. “I started chemotherapy immediately, and since then it has been resolving.”

Since then, Potter has made significant strides toward recovery. While she’s still on that journey, looking back now she’s able to see the irony in the fact that she used to carry a carbon monoxide detector with her, unaware she was already unwell.

Potter said: “I have always been super cautious about anything health-related, and it was just ironic that I didn’t know I had cancer back in October while trying to do all the right things to avoid ever getting a diagnosis like that.”

Though it’s a wild turn of events, Potter hopes her story inspires others to be hypervigilant about their health and any potential symptoms.

She said she would always encourage people to “definitely get checked out for anything they think may be concerning on their body!”

Potter added: “I was always cautious and still had underlying cancer. So I hope it inspires others to listen to their body and take care of it.”

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Emma Lee-Sang