When Karen Lurati looks in the mirror, she sees the body that betrayed her. She still has to accept that she may never be able to trust the body again.
The Melbourne mother of two was diagnosed at the age of 48 with liposarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer that grows in fat cells.
Speaking to FEMAIL, the now 55-year-old explained that the cancer had been growing in her abdomen for ten years, wrapping itself around her vital organs and making her look as if she had gained weight.
And she had no idea.
Karen initially thought her 15 pound weight gain, which started after the birth of her second child, was because she was a busy working mother.
When she got tired, she blamed the same cause.
When doctors and naturopaths tried and failed to help her lose weight, Karen followed their advice that it was hormonal and part of the aging process.
Then the hot sweats started and in her mind – and the doctors’ – it meant that the hormones were definitely to blame.
Karen Lurati, pictured center with her daughters, had cancer for 10 years before she was diagnosed with the disease
“They told me it was a sign of menopause, even though I looked pregnant at the time, except it wasn’t completely smooth or hard, it was soft and lumpy,” she said.
But one day, the marketing teacher felt a familiar downward “push.”
“It’s the same pressure you feel as your baby descends and your body prepares for birth,” says Karen.
But she wasn’t pregnant. Her daughters were 11 and 14 and she said it would have been “impossible” then.
“I thought it was a prolapse or something because that was the only thing that made sense.”
Karen immediately went to the doctor who instructed her to have an internal ultrasound.
“The sonographer couldn’t see anything, so an outside sonographer couldn’t see anything either,” she said.
Within minutes she realized something was wrong. The technicians’ facial expressions had changed and other people were coming in and out of the room whispering.
“They told me they found something on a kidney, but they weren’t sure what it was,” Karen said.
They said they don’t normally go that high, but there was clearly something.’
The Melbourne mother-of-two was diagnosed with liposarcoma – an extremely rare form of cancer that grows in fat cells
The mother’s stomach had slowly grown over the course of 10 years. She thought it was fat, but it was actually a huge tumor weighing 7.5 kg.
Karen went for more tests and was given the devastating news that she had cancer.
“At the end of the conversation with the doctor, I remember saying, ‘Wait, do I have cancer?'” she said.
She was so shocked that the information had not been processed.
Karen underwent a series of radiotherapies that created a kind of pocket around the fluid-like tumor.
She then underwent an 11-hour operation to remove a kidney, part of her intestine and the massive tumor.
“People keep asking me how I didn’t know, it was the size of two babies,” she said.
“But my doctors didn’t know either and I discussed it with them.”
Karen and her doctors assumed her changing body shape was hormonal and a result of having two children
Karen is sharing her story to raise awareness for sarcoma and other rare cancers, in the hopes that doctors will educate themselves about the signs and symptoms so they can help patients.
According to the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association (ANZSA) rare cancers make up 30 percent of all cancers diagnosed in Australia.
Long-term survival rates are low. In Australia, 42 percent of all cancer deaths are due to cancer.
Karen was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. She still struggles with the idea that her body hid the disease for so long.
And every time she has a scan to check for more growths, she fears it has happened again.
“Only when the results are in can you really have confidence,” Karen said.