A mother of two has disclosed the typical symptom that she disregarded before receiving a stage four cancer diagnosis.
Four months after she started exhibiting mild symptoms, Susan Schmidt was diagnosed with colon cancer in September 2023, at the age of 45.
“The diagnosis is incurable,” she told the Daily Mail. “The plan is to stay well for as long as I can. I’ll likely go back on chemo after my next trip overseas.”
The 47-year-old now wants to dismantle barriers by encouraging people to be open about the symptoms they’re having, particularly those related to bowel movements, which are somewhat of a taboo topic in contemporary society.
The Australian continued, “I didn’t talk about my bowel habits. Who does?”
“That’s the problem with bowel cancer – people don’t raise the alarm.”
“I had health literacy. I was a physiotherapist. But it never occurred to me to consider bowel cancer.”
“I didn’t have blood in my stool, no dramatic symptoms – just fatigue, constipation, and two extreme episodes of pain.”
Extreme fatigue was the minor symptom she had initially encountered, which she attributed to early menopause.
Schmidt clarified that she was so exhausted in May 2023 that she was “having to pull the car over just to sleep.”
“I’d drive 15 minutes to drop my daughter off at rowing and then have to stop halfway home to nap for 40 minutes,” she said.
“That’s not normal. That was a warning sign. But I brushed it off.”
Schmidt simply believed that she was ‘exhausted due of life’.
She experienced constipation, the next minor symptom, while on a dream vacation to France for a friend’s wedding, but she didn’t give it much thought.
“I’d never had constipation in my life,” she told the publication. “But in France, I just wasn’t going properly. I figured it was the rich French food, too much cheese. I didn’t think more of it.”
She reported experiencing “absolute agony” upon her return to Australia, describing it as “worse than childbirth.” She saw a doctor and was given the all-clear.
Schmidt recalled, “But they weren’t looking for cancer,”
She now hopes that people would take her urgent warning seriously and not ignore her modest symptoms after learning that she has an incurable illness.
“I want people to know the signs. I want them to push for answers if something feels off,” Schmidt added.
“Even if your blood tests are normal, even if you’re told it’s stress or diet or menopause – follow your instincts.”
