Doctors mistook my colon cancer symptoms for ‘exhaustion’ and ‘hemorrhoids’

• Jill McDonald, 46, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer nine years ago.
• She has since had 8 inches of her colon and half of her liver removed.
• Read more: Mysterious colon cancer epidemic among young people revealed

Missouri woman warns “healthy, active” young people to “listen to their bodies” after doctors chalked her colon cancer symptoms down to fatigue and hemorrhoids .

Jill MacDonald was a “sporty” 36-year-old who loved being physically active and took pride in preparing her own balanced and nutritious meals.

She never expected that half of the cases would be diagnosed with a disease that can be attributed to an unhealthy lifestyle.

By the time Jill McDonald's cancer was finally discovered, it had spread to other organs in her body, including her liver and ovaries.

Ten years later, at age 47, she has undergone numerous surgeries and dozens of grueling rounds of chemotherapy, and is running out of treatment options.

“The chances of dying from cancer are low,” Jill, a former molecular biologist, told DailyMail.com.

“But I'll probably die of liver failure. That's because all these treatments are harmful to the liver. They've had to do radiation treatments everywhere. They've done surgeries and things like that. ”

“We want to hold out for a long time until maybe another treatment comes along. Maybe something crazy will happen, but we don't know if that will happen.”

Jill's story comes as colon cancer among young people in the United States is at an all-time high.

According to the latest statistics, the disease is expected to become the leading cause of cancer death in people under 50 by the end of 2010.

The number of patients has increased by about 10 percent in just four years, according to data from the American Cancer Society.

Jill's ordeal began in 2014, when she began suffering from sleep problems and constant night sweats.

Around the same time, she began to feel “not feeling well in her intestines.”

“Something strange happened,” she said of abdominal pain and bloody stools.

“You can make all kinds of excuses for why perfectly healthy people get some disease,” she says.

When she discussed her symptoms with her doctor, the doctor attributed the blood to hemorrhoids (swollen veins in the anus and lower rectum) and said, “It's probably nothing to worry about.”

Concerned about his lack of sleep, he was prescribed the sleep-inducing drug Ambien.

But soon after taking the drug, an aching pain appeared near the liver.

“I had no idea,” she said. “I thought maybe it was the alcohol?'' Is it something I'm eating that's causing this pain? I felt really uncomfortable just putting my arm at my side.

“So that was kind of what prompted me to go back to the doctor.”

In the fall of 2014, McDonald met with a physician assistant whose mother-in-law had just been diagnosed with cancer. She believes that this motivated her to find the cause of her symptoms.

“He basically said he wasn't going to rest until he understood what was going on,” she said..

An abdominal ultrasound and CT scan found about 20 lesions throughout the liver and lymph nodes, and a colonoscopy found a 1-centimeter lesion in the sigmoid colon, the lowest part of the colon.

Jill's medical team doesn't know why she experienced liver pain while taking Ambien, and they speculate that the drug must have somehow irritated her largest tumor.

In January 2015, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

Her grandfather was also diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 50. He died a few years later.

Her father and sister also have a history of polyps, which are small clumps of cells that form on the lining of the colon.

Most of the time these are harmless, but they can develop into cancerous cells. Removing them can prevent the risk of colon cancer.

“It turns out it could be a family history.”

“Maybe I should have been a little more careful. I have a lot of cancer on both sides. All of us kids always joked, 'Oh, I'm going to get cancer someday.' ”

“I never thought I would be diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 37.”

The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing worldwide, creating an epidemic among young people.

Incidence among young people is expected to double by 2030, and colorectal cancer is expected to become the leading cause of cancer deaths in people under 50 by the end of the decade.

This is based on the following data: JAMA surgeryAccording to the study, between 2010 and 2030, colon cancer will increase by 90 percent among people ages 20 to 34. Rectal cancer will jump 124 percent in the same age group.

Colon and rectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the United States and the third leading cause of death in both men and women.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that approximately 153,000 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2023, 19,500 of whom will be under the age of 50.

About 53,000 people are expected to die from the disease this year.

Experts are still working to understand the causes of this devastating outbreak. They commonly claim that an unhealthy diet, alcohol intake, and a sedentary lifestyle are responsible for this change.

A Cleveland Clinic study suggests that eating red meat and sugar may increase a young person's chance of developing colorectal cancer.

Furthermore, antibiotic use has been shown to influence this risk.

One study Gut found that long-term antibiotic use increases the risk of early-onset colon cancer. However, it was also associated with a reduced risk of rectal cancer.

And in one study, the fungus Cladosporium sp. was more common in tumors in younger patients than in older people.

It is still unclear how Cladosporium sp. reproduces. This could lead to an increase in the number of people infected, but researchers believe it may also damage cellular DNA. This can turn them into cancer cells.

Jill soon began six rounds of chemotherapy, during which a tumor grew in her right ovary.

“I think that's when they probably realized we couldn't wait too long for treatment and try a surgical approach.”

In May 2015, doctors removed about 8 inches of Jill's colon and several tumors in her liver.

She also underwent a total hysterectomy, which involves removing the entire uterus and cervix to prevent future tumor growth in her reproductive organs.

A few months later, doctors performed portal vein embolization (PVE) to attack part of the tumor in her liver.

The goal is to shrink the most tumorous part of the liver by blocking blood flow. This causes one side to shrink and the other to grow. “That whole side basically dies because the nutrients aren't getting to it anymore,” Jill said.

“The right side shrinks and you get nothing, but the left side starts to bulge out and take over the functions of the right side.”

A few months later, she had the shrunken part of her liver removed. “I shouldn't have had any cancer,” she said.

But in 2016, more lesions developed in what remained of her liver.

Since then, she has continued to undergo chemotherapy and a new radiation therapy known as proton beam, which targets the tumor more directly than traditional radiation and causes less damage to surrounding tissue. She also had some lymph nodes removed.

“I've been very fortunate along the way to tolerate chemotherapy well and have had good radiation and other treatments,” she said.

“Living nine years is a blessing, but it's difficult. I think my path has been much easier than others, just because I've endured things better.”

However, despite treatment, tumors continue to develop in her liver. “It’s like whack-a-mole,” she said. She said: “When she went to get tested, she was told, “It looks like there's something in her liver again.''

One of the things that makes colorectal cancer difficult to diagnose is its symptoms, which are often caused by other diseases. However, some stand out more than others.

In a study published last year in a magazine, National Cancer Institute Journal The most reported symptoms were found to be abdominal pain, bloody stool, diarrhea, and iron deficiency anemia.

Furthermore, in the 2020 survey, Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 68% of participants said they had experienced blood in their stools. The average age of participants was 42 years.

The same study also found that many patients with symptoms of colorectal cancer are initially misdiagnosed or ignored.

More than half of respondents said they had been misdiagnosed with conditions such as hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, anemia and mental health problems. Patients between the ages of 19 and 39 were also more likely to feel dismissed by their healthcare provider.

In one study, people with just one symptom took an average of 10 months to receive a colorectal cancer diagnosis. A person who has at least 3 symptoms, on average he was diagnosed after 5 months.

If a person goes undiagnosed for a long time, colorectal cancer can progress to later stages and become more difficult to treat.

Jill McDonald believes her age and active lifestyle may have led doctors to ignore her symptoms for several months, allowing the disease to progress.

“You’re fired,” she said. “I think the only reason I was taken seriously was because I went to see that physician's assistant. His mother-in-law had just been diagnosed with cancer, and he told me how quickly things were going. I think I knew what to do.”

“Luckily, I had him advocate for me and push me to get additional tests done. Otherwise, I might have just kept walking without doing anything.”

She now fears she will “lose a precious asset” because chemotherapy and previous surgeries have left her liver unable to withstand further surgery.

She said, “My prognosis is basically that I'm nearing the end of treatment.”

However, she still tries to maintain a positive attitude and maintain her sense of humor.

She also said she wants to help other young patients who were initially laid off.

“I don't really care if we have new patients, old patients, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4. I don't really care if they just tell someone or what's going to happen. “If I just want to know, I'll walk away. If I can be a resource for them in any way, their phone number and contact information,” she said.

“I have nine years left. Even if I were to die tomorrow, after this time, when people think they're going to die from a stage 4 disease, it's hard to talk to someone or meet someone who's still alive. , I think it will give you some energy.'' A little more fire, a little more hope. ”