Susan Schmidt, a mother of two from Australia, was dealt a huge blow when diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer after she overlooked the mild symptoms. She’s now sharing her story in hopes of helping others catch the disease that turned her world upside down early.
When she received the devastating diagnosis in September 2023, Susan was 45.
“The diagnosis is incurable,” she shared with The Daily Mail. “The goal now is to stay well for as long as I can. I’ll probably resume chemotherapy after my next overseas trip.”
According to Susan, people don’t tend to speak openly about their bowel habits since the topic is still considered taboo, but she believes that needs to change in order to help raise awareness.
“I didn’t talk about my bowel habits, who does?” she said. “That’s part of the problem with bowel cancer. People don’t raise the alarm early enough.”
Recalling the symptoms she experienced before learning she had stage 4 bowel cancer, Susan said that such diagnosis never crossed her mind.
What she experienced was fatigue, constipation, and two really intense episodes of pain. She added that she had never noticed blood in her stool.
The first sign she experienced was unrelenting tiredness. This happened just four months before her diagnosis.
“I’d drive my daughter 15 minutes to rowing, then have to stop on the way home and nap for 40 minutes,” Susan, who worked as physiotherapist recalled. “That’s not normal. That was a warning sign, but I brushed it off.”
Later on, during a trip to France for a friend’s wedding, she experienced constipation for the first time in her life.
“I just wasn’t going properly. I blamed the rich food, too much cheese, too much indulgence.” She added: “I didn’t think much of it.”
The symptoms worsened after she returned to Brisbane when she “ended up on the bathroom floor in absolute agony. Vomiting, diarrhoea, unbearable pain. It lasted for eight hours.”
Initially, she believed she caught salmonella from her horse that had the infection.
“It was worse than childbirth. I was crawling into the shower, trying to relieve the pain with heat. It was a nine out of ten on the pain scale,” she told The Daily Mail.
When she visited the hospital, they weren’t looking for cancer, and she was told she was fine. But it wasn’t long after that she was told she had stage 4 bowel cancer.
“I want people to know the signs. I want them to push for answers if something feels off,” she said. “Even if your blood work is normal, even if they say it’s stress, diet, or hormones, listen to your instincts.”
Susan has since launched The Floozie Foundation, whose goal is “to build the resilience of patients and their support networks in adult cancer wards around Australia.”
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