What was supposed to be a preventive scan turned into a nightmare for a young mother when it revealed a “ticking time bomb” lurking in her body.
“I had a full-body MRI just for fun. No symptoms whatsoever,” Sarah Blackburn shared in a viral TikTok, recounting her shocking experience earlier this year after getting a Prenuvo scan.
Blackburn was expecting a clean bill of health and a good night’s sleep afterward. Instead, she got a life-threatening diagnosis that plunged her into “the darkest two months that we’ve had as a family.”
Before the Prenuvo MRI, Blackburn spent months wrestling with whether she wanted to know what the scan might reveal.
Prenuvo’s makers say the 60-minute test “captures millions of data points from head-to-ankle, including major organs, brain and spine.”
The $2,500 MRI — not covered by insurance — isn’t a replacement for routine screenings like mammograms or colonoscopies. The company touts it as a preventive tool.
Ultimately, Blackburn’s family health history, including cancer, outweighed her reservations.
“I thought this would be a huge difference that could make or break the situation,” she said. “I can get ahead of this.”
When the day came for her scan, Blackburn was “so excited” to get her results.
“I was just so certain that this was going to give me peace of mind and that they were not going to find anything serious,” she recalled.
Blackburn treated the experience like a self-care day, snapping selfies in her scrubs and watching Netflix during the scan.
“Everything at Prenuvo was great,” she said. “It did kind of feel like a spa day — until it didn’t.”
Four days later, around 8:30 p.m., Blackburn received her results. She was expecting a thumbs up — but the MRI revealed something way worse: a splenic artery aneurysm, a rare and potentially life-threatening condition.
The report noted a one-in-three mortality rate if the aneurysm ruptured.
The discovery threw Blackburn into a tailspin. With no one to talk to until her scheduled phone appointment with a nurse practitioner two days later, she was left alone with the crushing news.
“I just went into a full-blown panic attack when I got my results,” said Blackburn, adding that she rushed to the emergency room to have a doctor interpret the information. “I literally felt like a ticking time bomb was in my body.”
Subsequent testing revealed not one, but two aneurysms in her splenic artery.
Several doctors she consulted advised spleen removal due to the size and location of the aneurysms.
In follow-up TikToks, Blackburn said the surgery itself was successful and “pretty easy.” She’s recovering well and adjusting to life without a spleen, which humans can live without but plays an important role in fighting infections.
“I’m happy that I know about this and had the chance to decide what I wanted to do moving forward,” Blackburn said, though she admitted the experience left her with “debilitating health anxiety.”
Because of this, she’s torn about whether she’d recommend the scans to others.
“I’m grateful,” she said, but “for the people who already have existing health anxiety, I truly don’t know if I can recommend it.”
While it’s normal to have some concern about your well-being from time to time, health anxiety is an excessive and persistent worry about having or developing a serious illness, even when medical tests suggest otherwise.
This constant fear can significantly disrupt daily life, work and relationships, often leading people to seek unnecessary testing.
Health anxiety is more common than many realize, affecting about 4% to 5% of people, though experts believe the true number may be closer to 12%, according to Harvard Health.
Blackburn’s ordeal highlights the critical importance of staying proactive about your health.
In the US, 77% of adults have delayed an important medical checkup, and 60% admit to skipping routine health and cancer screenings altogether, with millennials leading the charge, according to a 2024 Aflac Wellness Matters Survey.
Many aren’t listening to their bodies either, with 20% of Gen Zers and millennials putting off seeing their doctor even when they had a nagging feeling something was wrong — compared to 13% of Gen Xers and 11% of baby boomers.
Logistical barriers and “feeling healthy” are among the top reasons Americans delay doctor visits.
But, as Blackburn’s experience demonstrates, potentially deadly medical conditions can often remain hidden for years before symptoms ever surface.
And don’t assume you’re too young for a health crisis, especially with serious illnesses like colon cancer on the rise among those under 50.
Experts warn that delaying routine screenings can postpone diagnosis and treatment, potentially leading to worse health outcomes.
In fact, the Aflac survey found that of respondents diagnosed with cancer, 63% were diagnosed during a regularly scheduled screening or routine checkup.
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