Zoe A’s story

So it was July 2023, my sister’s wedding and one comment was rattling around in my head ‘You look so skinny.’

My partner and I had completed our family in 2021, with our fourth child, and I was still partially breastfeeding. It felt good being called skinny at first, oh I’m getting my body back, that’s awesome. But it also started to make me wonder as I was generally not feeling too great all the time, very tired, but put that down to being a Mum.

It was in August 2023 that I felt so sick and pressure in my abdomen, my partner took me into ED. After a seven hour wait, because it was just stomach pains, I was finally seen and given some Panadol. When I was finally admitted to ED they performed a CT scan. Which produced some very concerned looks. By now it was early hours of the morning, my partner had left to sort our kids out. I was sitting alone when a very concerned, young ED doctor gave me the news ‘We have found a large mass in your large bowels, we are very sorry to tell you we are 90% sure it’s cancer’.

Everything went to free fall then, I cried and cried, I could see my four children’s faces and felt like I’ve let them down so much. I could see my partner’s face and just thought I don’t want to leave you, and I still had to call and notify him about the hospital’s discovery. It was a very hard call to make. I couldn’t talk, I just cried and said ‘please come back’.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind and flurry of education, tests, results, plans. I was diagnosed Stage 4 incurable. The plan was to place a pic line, start chemo, get a port, as this would be better for continuous chemo, and then look into radiation to shrink the tumour, as surgery wasn’t an option.

Everything went to plan. I did about eight months of chemo, then experienced a lot of pain, so back to hospital. CT scan revealed an abscess blocking my bowels. So, I was arranged to travel from Darwin to hospital in Melbourne by CareFlight, for surgery options. Unfortunately, the abscess burst while I was there, and I went into cold septic shock. Very lucky for me they performed emergency surgery, cleaned me out fixed me up, removed busted bowels, plus the tumour. I came out of surgery with ‘Kenny’ my permanent stoma and alive.

Back in Darwin I continue with chemo, having been through two lines already, I will start my third line in April 2025. Fingers crossed for me, my partner and my kiddos. They are who I’m doing it for.

Wake up, kick bowel cancers ass, and repeat.

Love to all the warriors past and present 💚❤️

My one piece of advice:

Please listen to your body.

If something feels off to you, keep pushing for answers, even when it seems like no one will listen. ❤️