I received Phase 4 colorectal cancer in 34 – symptoms I rejected

â € ‹an increasing threat

Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer ranks as the third most common cancer in the United States, according to the American Association of Cancer.

After being thought to mostly affect older adults, it is now growing among the youngest population, with diagnoses in people under 50 who are expected to double by 2030.

‹€‹ Even more alarming, young adults like Beran are often diagnosed in more advanced stages when the disease is more difficult to treat and survival rates fall. As a result, it is now the deadliest cancer for men under 50 and the second deadly for women in the same age group.

Pushing for response to a pandemic

In April 2020, Beran was a busy mother cheating the demands of a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old while working as a stylist.

“I had a super healthy, active way of life, but I always had a little stress and anxiety,” she said. While she often felt exhausted, she attributed the chaos of family life and her career pressures.

When the blood began to appear sporadically on its bench, Beran tightened it, realizing that it was nothing more than IBS or perhaps hemorrhoids.

“I had two babies, so it’s very common,” she said. Beran also noticed that her stool was thinner than usual, but without stomach cramps or other alarming symptoms, she didn’t think much about her.

But when blood continued, Beran decided to visit her primary care doctor.

The doctor assured him that he was unlikely not to worry, but admitted that colon cancer was becoming more common in young people. She referred to Berani a gastroenterologist who suspected that a parasite was behind her symptoms and sent her home with a stool test.

The test returned normal, and the specialist put it in probiotics. “She didn’t seem very worried at all,” Beran said, still unsure that everything was really wrong.

However, while the bleeding deteriorated, so did Beran’s fear.

“I’m not a person driven at all – usually” everything the doctor says is fine, “she said.” But I came to the point that there was so much blood in my stool that I came back and basically forced them to give me a meeting because it was Covid and they didn’t get caught by taking many patients.

This time, Beran showed her doctor a photo of blood and immediately referred to a colonoscopy. Even then, the colon cancer was far from her mind.

“I was always one of those people who thought it would never happen to me or someone in my family,” she accepted.

But when she woke up from the test, her life changed forever.

“They took my husband and I in a room and told me they had found over 100 polyps in my gut and a measure in my rectum,” she said.

At that moment, Beran said she was in shock.

“We left home quietly, just thinking about what life would look like and how we would handle it with our children and tell our families,” she remembered. â € Pre then you go to war mode. You get this strength you don’t know you have.â €

Chemotherapy, surgery ”and more cancer

Beran endured six rounds of chemistry before passing surgery to remove the colon. It also took an ileostom, in which the end of the small intestine is brought through a small opening in the abdomen, allowing debris to exit the body and gather in a bag.

She lived with the ileostomy bag for five months as she underwent six other rounds of Kimo and countless periods of radiation.

For some, including Berani, ileostomies are reversible. She had her return operation in December 2020, but the joy of throwing the ileostomy bag was short -lived.

Doctors quickly told her that cancer had spread to the lungs, and she had to do another surgery to remove it, plus more radiation.

Finally without cancer

Today, Beran has been without cancer for three years.

“After two years of being without cancer, your chances of returning from 90% to 10%, so when I hit the two -year sign, it was a big job,” she said.

Now she just has to take scans every six months, and she will go down until once a year when she hits the five-year sign.

Beyond the discovery of her strength, Beran said experience changed her view of life.

â € œ I have used so much in the hustle and rush of the fashion industry and what is further, ”she said. “I realized that all that matters to me is my family. He taught me how to be more present. Just to enjoy the simple things. Other materials don’t matter.â €

Beran also came to an essential realization: she could no longer put herself in the back burn, as so many women do for their families.

Care € Caring Care for myself helps me to be a better mother and a better woman, “she said. “I am trying to make it more of an advantage.â €

Determined to make a change, Beran has also become a lawyer in the fight against colon cancer.

Together with her friend Brooks Bell, who was diagnosed with Phase 3 colorectal cancer at the age of 38, Beran co-founded the world brand of fashion. The brand aims to destroy the stigma surrounding the colon cancer and promoting early appearances.

The duo also donates income to finance colonoscopies to those who cannot allow them.

“The latest line is colonoscopy prevent colon cancer,” Bell told the post, explaining how the procedure helps doctors set up and remove polyps – abnormal growth in colon lining – before they become cancerous.

Berani emphasized that removing these polyps is not as painful as many people believe.

“You don’t feel it,” she said. â € is much better getting a colonoscopy and removing them than to go through cancer treatments.â €

She encouraged patients to avoid acceleration in the first plan of treatment presented to them, especially if she does not feel good, and to seek a second opinion when needed.

“If I hadn’t done this, I think I would probably still have an ileostomie bag,” Beran said. “You need to find a doctor who knows the best plan for you and your life.â €