A young single mother has revealed how she signed her own ‘death warrant’ after ignoring painful stomach cramps for six months.
Nicole Murphy “felt silly” going to the doctor about the pain, and when she finally went, she was sent away saying it was probably age or diet related.
By the time Nicole felt safe enough to ask for more answers, it was too late: tests revealed she had stage four bowel 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 did not experience any other symptoms such as bleeding or changes in bowel habits.
“I was fit, well, healthy, I exercised regularly, I did everything right. I’d never had any problems before, so this was really out of my reach,” Nicole told FEMAIL.
He visited his family doctor, but tests showed nothing concerning. When the cramps continued, she returned to the doctor for an ultrasound and still no results.
Nicole was told that her stomach pains were “nothing to worry about” because she was young and healthy, and was advised to consider starting the FODMAP diet.
Single mother Nicole Murphy (pictured with sons Finn, right, and Nate, left) was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer on February 1.
The 44-year-old man from regional Victoria was fit, healthy, ate well and for six months suffered from just one symptom: cramps.
“No matter what I did, the cramps didn’t go away,” Nicole said.
‘I knew something was wrong in December because I was in so much pain. But being in a regional area I couldn’t get an appointment with a GP at that time,’ she said.
Nicole went to the emergency room, despite feeling “dumb” to do so because of the cramps, and underwent blood tests that showed high inflammatory markers, meaning something was wrong.
Doctors performed a CT scan that revealed a mass on Nicole’s left side, but they still didn’t know what it was.
“At the time they attributed it to colitis (inflammation of the colon) and sent me home with antibiotics,” he said.
‘Over Christmas I never felt well and lost more weight, which was my second symptom. I managed to get an appointment with the 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 felt very ill, she had a high fever and knew something was very wrong.
“It was Sunday night, I took a Panadol and went to bed. The next morning I was very dizzy and felt like I was going to faint. The children went to their father’s house and I went to the hospital,” she said.
‘From then on, they attributed it again to colitis. He couldn’t believe it. I waited hours in the waiting room before complaining that he had acute abdominal pain and I knew it wasn’t colitis.
‘That’s when it all started… I had a scan and the radiologist said I had a perforated intestine. But at this stage cancer was not yet considered, it was thought to be an infection.’
Although the intestinal cancer was removed, additional tumors were found in the liver, spine and abdominal wall.
Nicole remained in hospital for a week receiving painkillers and antibiotics before the surgeon decided an operation was necessary to determine the root cause of her discomfort.
On January 22, Nicole underwent a bowel resection and had 20 cm of her descending colon removed.
During the procedure the doctors also found the worst: a cancerous tumor that was removed along with several lymph nodes.
But the sinister lump had pierced her abdominal wall, causing other problems.
Nicole was able to return home on January 29, just in time for her son’s birthday the following day. Two days later, she received the shocking news that tests had confirmed cancer.
“It was really scary and surreal. You never think it’s going to happen to you,” Nicole said.
Bowel cancer can cause blood in the stool, a change in bowel habits, a lump inside the bowel that can cause blockages. Some people also experience weight loss as a result of these symptoms.
Nicole now doesn’t know how much time she has left to live, but she is determined to beat the cancer and is controlling it through immunotherapy.
While she was confident that everything would be “fine,” things took a nosedive after her first four rounds of treatment when she began experiencing pain in her abdomen near her liver.
“I felt like I had torn a muscle and it hurt. The third time it happened again, I started getting scared. So they did a CT scan,” he said.
Multiple cancerous spots were found in his liver.
“That was a devastating and moving conversation, because it now meant that my whole mindset of, ‘Okay, this is preventative,’ changed because that’s no longer the case,” she said.
“The chemotherapy wasn’t working, so we stopped it and moved on to immunotherapy two days later.”
But that night things went from bad to worse: Nicole had a fever, pain in her liver and felt a lump in her side where she had had a bowel resection. She called Bendigo Hospital, which was an hour from her home, and went straight there.
Doctors thought it was an infected abscess and sent her home with a drain inserted, but her fever returned a few days later and she returned to the hospital.
A PET scan and MRI confirmed the news he didn’t want to hear: Spots of cancer were found in his liver and thoracic spine.
)Nicole doesn’t know how much longer she has left to live, but she is determined to beat her cancer and is controlling it through immunotherapy.
The good news is that the primary liver tumor was removed during the initial surgery and often acts as “fuel” for secondary tumors.
Nicole recently had her drain removed so she could go swimming during her week-long holiday in Cairns.
‘I have two children who need their mother. They need me,’ she said.
‘I went from being noticeably tearful, upset, scared and fearful to being quite angry and determined to think ‘What do I need to do to get through this?’.
Nicole’s main message to other Australians is to advocate for your body and yourself.
“Listen to the little things your body tells you and get them checked out appropriately,” she said.
‘And if doctors say “you’re too young,” you’re never too young. Early detection is everything. I firmly believe that if my intestine had not perforated, I would not be in this situation. “It would have been contained and removable.”
If you would like to donate to Nicole’s GoFundMe page, Click here.
