A young single mum has revealed how she signed her own ‘death sentence’ after ignoring painful stomach cramps for six months.
Nicole Murphy ‘felt silly’ heading 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 bowel cancer, an incurable disease.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Nicole revealed the devastating news came on February 1 – about six months after the persistent cramping in her lower abdomen began.
The 44-year-old initially assumed she was going into peri-menopause. As months passed, she lost weight but didn’t have any other symptoms such as bleeding or changes in bowel habits.
‘I was fit, well, healthy, exercised regularly, I did everything right. I never had any issues before so this was really out of the realm for me,’ Nicole told FEMAIL.
She visited her GP but testing showed nothing of concern. When the cramping continued she went back to the doctor for an ultrasound and still nothing showed.
Nicole was told her stomach pains were ‘nothing to be worried about’ because she was young and healthy, and was told to consider starting the FODMAP diet.
Single mum Nicole Murphy (pictured with her sons Finn, right, and Nate, left) was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer on February 1
The 44-year-old from regional Victoria was fit, healthy, ate well and only suffered one symptom for six months – cramping
‘No matter what I did the cramps didn’t go away,’ Nicole said.
‘By December I knew there was something wrong because it was hurting too much. But being in a regional area I couldn’t get an appointment to a GP at the time,’ she said.
Nicole went to ER – despite feeling ‘silly’ for doing so over cramping – and had blood tests which came back with high inflammatory markers, meaning something was wrong.
Doctors conducted a CT scan which revealed a mass on Nicole’s left side, but they still didn’t know what it was.
‘At that point they put it down to colitis (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 managed to get a GP appointment who gave me the same antibiotics and told me to come back in a week if I wasn’t feeling better.’
Five days later Nicole became extremely unwell, had a high fever and knew something was severely wrong.
‘It was a 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’s and I went to the hospital,’ she said.
‘From there they put it down to colitis again – I couldn’t believe it. I waited hours in the waiting room before complaining I had acute abdominal pain and knew it wasn’t colitis.
‘That’s when it all kicked off.. I had a scan and the radiologist said I had a perforated bowel. But at this stage cancer still wasn’t considered – they thought it was an infection.’
While the bowel cancer was removed additional tumours were found in her liver, spine and abdominal wall
Nicole remained in hospital for a week on pain relief and antibiotics before the surgeon decided an operation was required to determine the root cause of her distress.
On January 22, Nicole went in for a bowel resection and 20cm of her descending colon was removed.
During the procedure doctors also found the worst – a cancerous tumour which was removed along with several lymph nodes.
But the sinister lump had perforated her abdominal wall sparking other issues.
Nicole was able to return home on January 29, just in time for her son’s birthday the next day. Two days later she was given the shocking news that testing 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 you to have blood in your stools, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss as a result of these symptoms
Now Nicole doesn’t know how long she has left to live but is determined to beat the cancer and manages it through immunotherapy
While she was sure everything would be ‘fine’, the situation nosedived after her first four rounds of treatment when she started experiencing pain in her abdomen near her liver.
‘It felt like I had pulled a muscle and was sore. By the third time it reoccurred it started to freak me out. So I had a scan,’ she said.
Multiple cancerous spots were found on her liver.
‘That was a devastating poignant conversation, because it now meant that my whole mindset of “It’s fine, this is preventative” changed because it’s now not the case,’ she said.
‘Chemotherapy wasn’t working so we stopped that and pivoted to immunotherapy two days later.’
Though that night things went from bad to worse – Nicole had a fever, pain in her liver and felt a lump on the side where she had a bowel resection. She called Bendigo Hospital, which was an hour away from her home, and went straight in.
Doctors thought it was an infected abscess so they sent her home with a drain inserted, but her fever returned a few days later and she went back to hospital.
An PET scan and MRI confirmed news she didn’t want to hear – cancer spots were found on her liver and on her thoracic spine.
]Nicole doesn’t know how long she has left to live but is determined to beat the cancer and manages it through immunotherapy.
The good news is the primary tumour in the liver was removed during the initial surgery and often acts as ‘fuel’ for secondary tumours.
Nicole recently had the drain removed so she could go swimming on her week-long holiday in Cairns.
‘I have two kids who need their mum. They need me,’ she said.
‘I went from being remarkable teary, upset, scared and fearful about it to quite angry and determined to think “What do I need to do to beat this?”.’
Nicole’s main message to other Australians is to advocate for your body and yourself.
‘Listen to the small things that your body is telling you and get them checked properly,’ she said.
‘And if doctors are saying “you are too young” – you are never too young. Early detection is everything. I strongly believe that if my bowel hadn’t perforated, I wouldn’t be in this position. It would’ve been contained and removeable.’
If you’d like to donate to Nicole’s GoFundMe page, click here.