Kimberly H’s story

I was having constant bloating for over 12 months. I put it down to perimenopause as other things like anxiety and night sweats were something my friends of similar ages were all going through.

Then I got diagnosed with MS. Again, this can cause stomach issues, so I linked it to that.
I was so sick of it after adjusting my diet and trying supplements that I tried some colonics. At my 4th session I felt discomfort and had a slight bleed the next day. Again, I put that down to haemorrhoids I had during my pregnancies.

As I was on a bit of a health journey and the bowel screening advertisement kept coming up on TV I decided to get a kit for my husband and I. Not at all thinking I had bowel cancer because of my symptoms but just to do a check and rule it out along with all the other annual checks we were having.

To no surprise mine came back positive so I followed it up with the GP and she said routine screening is a colonoscopy but they can also fix haemorrhoids while you’re there.

Off I went to my colonoscopy thinking I’d be out of there in 1-2 hours. As I woke up the nurses were so kind and asked if I had seen the doctor yet. When he came around, he said ‘I’m sorry to tell you but you have a tumour and I’ve done this a long time and can say I’m 99% confident its malignant. We will send you for bloods and scan now.’

I was in shock! They called in my Mum as she was picking me up, and I told her the news. We both broke down in tears.

The next day I saw the doctor, he confirmed it was cancerous and he wants it out in 4-6 weeks.
I scheduled surgery with him the following week.

I told him to ‘Get it all out!’

Unfortunately, I woke and the surgery couldn’t go ahead as he found severe endometriosis attached to the area of the bowel he needed to remove.

I was referred to a new surgeon that worked with robotics and he did a combined bowel resection and hysterectomy with an oncology gynaecologist at the same time.

The surgery took 8 hours but thankfully it was done well, and I didn’t need a stoma.

Two weeks later pathology confirmed 2 of the 16 Lymph nodes they removed and tested were positive and I needed to do 6 months of chemotherapy.

I had a portacath put in and started chemo two weeks later. I am now three months NED!

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My one piece of advice:

Don’t put your health aside because you’re too busy. Don’t think you know what’s going on.
Get symptoms checked by a professional as soon as possible. Early detection has far better outcomes.