Young mum reveals how she signed her own ‘death sentence’ after ignoring her stomach pains and avoiding the doctor because she felt ‘silly’ and didn’t want to cause a fuss

A young single mother has revealed how she signed her own ‘death warrant’ after ignoring painful stomach cramps for six months.

Nicole Murphy felt “dumb” when she went to the doctors about the pain, and when she finally did, they sent her away saying it was probably age or diet related.

By the time Nicole felt confident enough to ask for more answers, it was too late; tests revealed she had stage four colon cancer, an incurable disease.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Nicole revealed that the devastating news came on February 1, around six months after the persistent cramps in her lower abdomen began.

The 44-year-old initially assumed she was entering perimenopause. As the months passed, she lost weight but had no other symptoms such as bleeding or changes in her bowel habits.

‘I was fit, well, healthy, exercised regularly, I did everything right. I never had any problems before, so this was really out of my reach,” Nicole told FEMAIL.

She visited her GP, but tests showed nothing of concern. When the cramps persisted, she went back to the doctor for an ultrasound and still nothing showed up.

Nicole was told that her abdominal pain was ‘nothing to worry about’ because she was young and healthy, and she was told to consider starting the low FODMAP diet.

“No matter what I did, the cramps wouldn’t go away,” Nicole said.

“In December I knew something was wrong because it was too painful. But because I lived in a rural area I couldn’t get an appointment with a GP at that time,” she said.

Nicole went to the ER, despite feeling “stupid” for doing so because of the cramps. She had blood tests done and it showed that the inflammation levels were high, which meant that something was wrong.

Doctors performed a CT scan which showed a mass on Nicole’s left side, but they still didn’t know what it was.

“Then they thought it was colitis (an inflammation of the colon) and sent me home with antibiotics,” she said.

‘Over Christmas I never felt well and lost more weight, which was my second symptom. I got an appointment with my GP who prescribed me the same antibiotics and told me to come back in a week if I didn’t feel better.’

Five days later, Nicole became seriously ill with a high fever and knew something was seriously wrong.

“It was Sunday night, I took a Panadol and went to bed. The next morning I was really dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out. The kids went to their dad and I went to the hospital,” she said.

‘From there they put it down to colitis again – I couldn’t believe it. I waited in the waiting room for hours before I complained of acute abdominal pain and knew it wasn’t colitis.

‘That’s when it all started… I had a scan and the radiologist said I had a perforated bowel. But cancer wasn’t being considered at this stage – they thought it was an infection.’

Nicole stayed in the hospital for a week with pain medication and antibiotics before the surgeon decided that surgery was necessary to determine the cause of her complaints.

On January 22, Nicole went to the hospital for a bowel resection and had 20 cm of her descending colon removed.

During the procedure, the doctors also discovered the worst: a cancerous tumor that was removed along with several lymph nodes.

But the sinister lump had perforated her abdominal wall, causing other problems.

Nicole was able to return home on January 29, just in time for her son’s birthday the next day. Two days later she received the shocking news that tests had confirmed cancer.

‘It was really scary and surreal. You never think it will happen to you,” Nicole said.

She was sure that everything would be ‘fine’, but after the first four treatments the situation deteriorated enormously. She started experiencing pain in her abdomen, near her liver.

“It felt like I had pulled a muscle and I was in pain. When it came back the third time, I started freaking out. So I had a scan,” she said.

Multiple cancerous spots were found on her liver.

“That was a devastating, moving conversation because it now meant that my whole mentality of ‘It’s fine, this is preventative’ changed because that’s not the case now,” she said.

‘Chemotherapy didn’t work, so we stopped that and switched to immunotherapy two days later.’

Although things went from bad to worse that night: Nicole had a fever, pain in her liver and felt a lump on the side where she had had a bowel resection. She called Bendigo Hospital, an hour’s drive from her home, and went straight in.

The doctors thought it was an infected abscess and sent her home with a drain. However, a few days later she developed a fever again and had to go to the hospital again.

A PET scan and MRI confirmed news she didn’t want to hear: cancerous spots were found on her liver and on her thoracic spine.

Nicole doesn’t know how long she has to live, but is determined to beat and control the cancer through immunotherapy.

The good news is that the primary tumor in the liver is removed during the first operation and often acts as ‘fuel’ for secondary tumors.

Nicole recently had the drain removed so she could go swimming during her week’s holiday in Cairns.

“I have two children who need their mother. They need me,” she said.

‘I went from being incredibly tearful, upset, scared and anxious to being quite angry and determined to think, “What do I need to do to overcome this?”‘

Nicole’s main message to other Australians is: stand up for your body and yourself.

“Listen to the little things your body is telling you and get them checked,” she said.

‘And when doctors say ‘you’re too young’ – you’re never too young. Early detection is everything. I firmly believe that if my bowel had not perforated, I would not be in this position. It would have been contained and removable.”

If you would like to donate to Nicole’s GoFundMe page, Click here.