The 43-year-old British woman was diagnosed with bowel cancer 8 years ago. Andrea Robinson said that the disease was detected at a late stage.
In an interview with The Sun, the woman named the first symptoms of the disease. First of all, she felt constant fatigue. Robinson noted that she was so tired at work that she went to the toilet just to rest.
Then she started having stomach pains. Doctors attributed her condition to an exacerbation of ulcerative colitis.
“Looking at photos from those years, I see that I looked different. My eyes were sore,” the woman said.
One day, while going to the toilet, she started bleeding heavily and lost a lot of blood. They called an ambulance. At the hospital, she had a colonoscopy and a biopsy. It turned out that she had advanced stage three bowel cancer.
Robinson had part of her bowel removed, had a stoma, and had several rounds of chemotherapy. She is now in remission, but she says she will always have the stoma.
Fatigue is a common symptom of almost all cancers, as is unexplained weight loss.
Classic signs of bowel cancer:
- Changes in bowel habits: diarrhea or constipation that lasts more than a few days; changes in stool consistency (such as thinner stools).
- Blood in the stool. The presence of blood (red or dark) in the stool or on toilet paper. Black, tarry stools indicate internal bleeding.
- Persistent abdominal pain or discomfort, including cramping or colic. Feeling full or bloated.
- Loss of appetite or feeling full after eating a small amount of food.
- Intestinal obstruction.
- Symptoms of anemia, such as paleness, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
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