I was young, fit and living an amazing life until I developed a common symptom everyone has had – but five days later I found out it was stage four bowel cancer
A mother who thought she was constipated or had a simple stomach flu found out at the age of 43 that she had stage 4 colon cancer.
Natalie Hunter suffered from stomach pain for five days, assuming it was a routine problem, but the pain soon became too much and she called an ambulance.
She didn’t know that a tumor the size of a kiwi had blocked her intestines.
After a CT scan, the doctor entered her hospital room and delivered the worst news imaginable.
‘He looked at me, held my hand and said, ‘You have colon cancer. It’s a big tumor and it has spread to your liver.’ And I didn’t expect to hear that at all,” Natalie from the Sunshine Coast told FEMAIL.
‘I thought maybe my intestines were twisted or something, but cancer was the last thing on my mind. I said to the doctor, “Really? Is this a dream?”
Natalie Hunter (pictured) suffered from stomach pain for five days, but when it became too much she decided to call an ambulance. A cancerous tumor was blocking her colon and she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer
The busy mum received the shocking news on February 15 and has no family history of cancer (pictured with her two children James, 14, and Evie, 11)
The busy makeup artist and business owner, who has no family history of cancer, received the shocking news on February 15.
“It took me a while to register what was happening and at first I didn’t want to tell anyone,” Natalie said, adding that she spoke to a social worker for 30 minutes before calling her family.
‘I kept asking myself what was happening because it didn’t feel real. I was just a deer in the headlights. The whole situation was a complete shock to the system.
‘I always thought that colon cancer was a ‘disease of the elderly’, but now I know that is not the case: cancer does not discriminate. Everyone I met with the same cancer was very young and fit.’
The next day she underwent emergency surgery, where doctors removed the tumor from her sigmoid colon. The species had been growing unnoticed for six to twelve months.
Because the cancer was determined to be at stage four, doctors had to act quickly.
Two more tumors were also growing on the liver, the largest of which was 11 cm in size.
‘I thought maybe my intestines were twisted or something, but cancer was the last thing on my mind. I said to the doctor, ‘Really? Is this a dream?’ she said
Before her diagnosis, Natalie was fit, healthy and led a busy life
Before her diagnosis, Natalie led a “busy, normal life,” caring for her children, exercising five times a week and running her small business.
She also enjoyed hanging out with friends and felt like she was living “on top of the world.”
“During Covid I lost so much work, almost a whole year because weddings were canceled, but I went to work in administration at a dental practice,” she said.
At the end of last year she noticed a change in her bowel habits, but because it was a busy time with Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve and her birthday, she “didn’t think anything of it.”
“I thought it was because I drank and ate too much over the holidays,” she said.
When the pain became more severe, she visited her doctor, who gave her a colonoscopy preparation kit, which involved drinking one liter of water to cleanse the intestines.
But overnight this didn’t work.
“Nothing changed, so I went back the next morning and he gave me a second set, and again nothing happened,” Natalie said, adding that her stomach was bloated from all the fluid.
She paced up and down the hallway of the house, waiting until morning to call the ambulance so someone could watch her two children, Evie, 11, and James, 14.
“It was so hard to leave my children and I could tell they were both worried,” she said.
‘Looking back, when I was constipated, I could feel the lump in my stomach from the outside, but it was just hard stool stuck in there.’
“Looking back, when I was constipated I could feel the lump in my stomach from the outside, but it was a hard stool stuck there,” she said.
Because the cancer had already moved to her liver, she started “aggressive” chemotherapy quite quickly after recovering from the surgery
Because the cancer had already moved to her liver, she started “aggressive” chemotherapy quite quickly after recovering from the surgery.
She had six rounds for months and by the fourth round the doctors said the remaining two tumors in the liver had already started to shrink.
Fortunately, she only experienced a few side effects, including thinning hair, fatigue and neuropathy.
‘You couldn’t tell I’m unwell just by looking at me. For me, the cancer is like an invisible disease,” she said.
Last month, the mother-of-two underwent major surgery to remove 30 percent of her liver and the smaller tumor.
This week she will also have 50 percent of the liver removed to withdraw the remaining cancerous tumor.
She will need another round of chemotherapy to clear out any remaining cancer cells.
In total, Natalie is said to have undergone four operations in seven months.
“I’m really hopeful that the surgeon can get everything and stay positive,” Natalie said.
Now Natalie waits patiently and hopes that one day she will be free from the life-threatening cancer. She maintains a positive attitude by thinking about her children
Now Natalie waits patiently and hopes that one day she will be free from the life-threatening cancer. She maintains a positive attitude by thinking about her children.
“I can’t leave them alone, they need their mother,” she said, adding: “I want to see them grow and be there for all those special moments.
“When I was diagnosed, I was very scared and thought, ‘I have to beat this.’”
The most challenging aspect of the whole ordeal wasn’t the grueling surgeries, but instead telling her two children that she has cancer.
‘Saying goodbye to my children before being taken away by ambulance was truly heartbreaking. It was horrible to look at their faces and see me go, and the fear of the unknown loomed large. “I was really scared for the future,” she said.
Today, she has an ostomy and colostomy bag and is on a mission to encourage others to be aware of any concerning symptoms.
‘If you are in doubt, go to the doctor and insist on a scan or colonoscopy. Keep an eye on all the odds and know your body,” she said.
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