Doctors Told Mom Her Stomach Pain Was IBS… But The Real Diagnosis Was Life-Crashting

Andrea Badgie was 31 years old when she started experiencing severe pain near her appendix.

After her mother’s death in 2020, Andrea ignored her pain for months until the pain progressed into stomach pains and bouts of constipation.

Doctors diagnosed her with IBS and sent her home on antibiotics and laxatives. Six months later, she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery and later received a heartbreaking diagnosis of bowel cancer.

READ MORE: “Any other parent might not have taken their child to the doctor for this”

Now 34, Manchester-based Andrea is urging those who are unwell to talk about their symptoms and persist if they feel they are not being heard.

“When this all started and I started feeling sick, I had just lost my mum in September,” Andrea revealed.

“Losing her, the last thing on my mind was worrying about how I was doing. I kept putting off going to the doctor, so it was a good few months of pain and discomfort before I went to see one.”

Andrea visited her GP in December where she was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), however she claims the medication didn’t work and she was sent for some ultrasounds – which showed nothing was wrong not right.

Then her doctor diagnosed Andrea with a urinary tract infection (UTI) because of the pain she was experiencing. Andrea said: “I went from IBS to a UTI which traveled back into the liver and apparently that’s what caused the pain.

“I took antibiotics for months, which made me feel better, but as soon as I stopped taking them, it got worse again. I went back and forth to the doctor, then I started losing weight and had severe constipation.”

In May 2021, Andrea went to A&E – which would be the first of six visits she claims to have made in the space of a month. Andrea said: “I’m tired of going back and forth to doctors.

“There I had a CT scan and an MRI scan which showed that I had extensive inflammation around my pelvis, which they then diagnosed with a ruptured appendix.

“I was severely constipated so they prescribed laxatives, but as I now know my bowel was blocked, it started coming out the other end – I was throwing up everything and couldn’t go to the toilet.

“During my visits to A&E, I had a nasogastric tube (NG tube) put in to help pump out whatever I couldn’t get out of my gut.

“I was put on a waiting list to have my appendix removed and sent home with more antibiotics. Since then, I’ve brought myself back to A&E at least five more times.

Andrea has reached a breaking point. After losing six stone in just a few months, Andrea went to A&E in June because she was suffering from severe abdominal pain. Mom said she hasn’t had a bowel movement in three weeks.

She said: “I was in for a few days before being taken for a CT scan which showed a small bowel obstruction. The mass was getting bigger, but they still said it was due to a ruptured appendix.

“Within an hour of that scan, the doctors told me they needed to take me into emergency surgery to take a closer look at what was going on. I didn’t know if I would wake up with a stoma bag. Fortunately, I didn’t. I was in surgery for eight and a half hours.

“They removed part of my intestine and were able to join the two pieces back together. They removed my appendix and a few lymph nodes, but they still told me everything looked fine, it just looked like an infection, but they sent it for a biopsy just to be safe.”

For three weeks, Andrea was kept in the hospital while she recovered. She said she “struggled” being at the hospital here and “wasted”.

As the COVID restrictions were in place at the time, visiting was limited. She said it was the thought of her daughter that kept her going throughout her recovery before she was finally discharged.

Although she had to get her injuries checked out, Andrea said that one day she received a letter in the mail giving her an appointment that she thought was “strange.”

Andrea attended the meeting where she received a shocking diagnosis.

“When I walked into the room, my entire surgical team was there. I knew something was wrong when I saw my doctors and other medical professionals I had never seen before.

“They spoke to me about my operation and said the biopsy results had come back and it was stage three bowel cancer.

“It was a real shock to me because obviously all this time I was told it was something to do with my appendix. So I was really shocked, I burst into tears.”

Andrea underwent 12 weeks of preventative chemotherapy at Christies and doctors said they were confident they had removed all the mass during surgery.

The experience proved to be mentally and physically draining for Andrea, who is currently being monitored to ensure her cancer does not return. She says anyone with health issues should be persistent and fears what would have happened if they hadn’t.

“After I finished my chemotherapy, I got the go-ahead, I found out I was in the clear just before Christmas 2022. I’ve been under observation for five years now, and then I’ll be fully discharged.

“Through everything I’ve been through, all I can say from the bottom of my heart is that you know your body and if you feel like something isn’t right or you’re not being heard, follow your gut.

“It was stage three when they finally got it, so if it had taken longer, who knows what would have happened – I could have been terminal and I might not be here now .”

Genevieve Edwards, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said: “Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with almost 43,000 people diagnosed each year. It is most common in people over 50, but younger people can still get the disease.

“The earlier bowel cancer is detected, the more likely it is to be treatable. In fact, more than 9 out of 10 people survive bowel cancer when it is diagnosed in its earliest stages.

“We encourage people to be aware of symptoms such as bleeding from the bottom, blood in the poo, a change in pooing habits, weight loss, feeling very tired and pain or a lump in the tummy. If you have any of these symptoms or are concerned about any changes you notice, see your GP for a home test.”