A mother who diagnosed her own colon cancer has revealed the ‘mild symptoms’ she initially ignored.
Doctor Lauren Juyia, who is the mum to young children and works as a gynaecologist, assumed that the tiredness she felt was due to her busy lifestyle parenting toddlers. According to BirminghamLive, when she began to feel a ‘sense of pelvic heaviness’, she realised that something wasn’t quite right.
She explained that the sense of ‘heaviness’ began to progress into a ‘pelvic mass’, at which point she knew she needed an urgent ultrasound. Following diagnostic testing, it was revealed that the mum had larger-than-normal masses near her ovary, leading to her being diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 37.
The doctor, from Florida, appeared on Good Morning America to speak about her experience, SurreyLive reports. She said: “Having a background in obstetrics, we describe size by weeks of pregnancy, and so I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have a 16-week-size mass’. From experience, I could tell that this was my ovary.”
The doctor added that she knew the news was not “going to be good” when the mass grew in size from 8cm to 24cm in the space of two weeks. Dr Juyia said she “never seen anything benign” grow that fast, so had suspicions the masses would be cancerous but initially assumed it was ovarian cancer due to the placement of the masses.
She had the masses removed in September 2022 and by then, they had spread to her ovaries, uterus, omentum, appendix, and even her abdominal area. She still was not experiencing severe symptoms, despite the rapid growth of the masses.
“I was a little tired in the afternoon for about two months previous to this and as a mum with two little kids – I had been recently nursing them, they were still waking up in the night, I work full time – I didn’t think anything of saying, ‘Oh, I think I need a tea in the afternoon,'” she said.
The mum added: “Whereas maybe someone in their 50s or 60s would be much more tired from stage 4 tumours taking up their energy.” Dr Juyia was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and began six months of chemotherapy treatments, during which time she kept working in order to take her mind off of her health battle. She explained helping her patients was “therapeutic” for her.
In March last year, Dr Juyia underwent one more operation to remove an inactive tumour, and by April, tests were showing that she had “no evidence of disease”. Following her experience, the mum-of-two wants to encourage others to be mindful of the early warning signs of the disease, such as fatigue and a sense of “pelvic heaviness” – especially for those of a younger age.
According to the NHS, other symptoms of colon or bowel cancer can include changes to your stool – such as having diarrhoea or constipation that isn’t normal for you or having blood in your stool – as well as stomach pains and unexplained weight loss.
In the UK, bowel cancer screening is available to most people over the age of 50, but it does depend on your location. In England, bowel cancer screenings are available every two years for people aged 54-74, and the programme is gradually being expanded to include people aged 50 and over. In Wales and Scotland, the age range is already 50-74.
