Joe Yates
A mom-of-six has revealed the four symptoms became apparent to her on the lead-up to her cancer diagnosis.
Elaine Griffin, of New Jersey, was 44 years old when she was diagnosed with Stage 2b colon cancer in the spring of last year, and now hopes to raise awareness of the deadly disease.
We'll get straight into the symptoms Griffin experienced - and thankfully for her family and herself, she was given the all clear in September.
It all began in the fall of 2023 - she told the New York Post she began noticing she had developed some intolerances to food, or so she thought.
She put intense bowel movements to a gluten allergy, and even started a journal to keep track of what she was eating and how it made her feel.
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“It was one of those things where I knew something was going on, but I didn’t see it was anything more than, ‘OK, maybe I’m just getting older'," Griffin told the Post.
Then after a few breakfasts where she experienced what 'felt like glass going through my intestines' she seriously restricted her diet - cutting out dairy as well as bread, grains and pasta.
Griffin explained: "I experienced intense and sudden abdominal pain pretty frequently. My abdomen was bloated.
"It was very hard to sit, stand and use the bathroom. I started noticing blood with each bowel movement."
She described her feces as being narrow, as well as not giving her much relief following a visit to the toilet.
“I was not exercising or consciously trying to lose weight,” she told the New York-based publication, but still lost a staggering 20 pounds in one month - January 2024.
"I did begin to associate food with pain," she added.
The following months her symptoms became more severe, leading her to visit RWJBarnabas Health - a comprehensive health care in New Jersey.
Griffin described herself as being 'pretty fast' - helping look after six children will do that to a person.
But she noticed a drastic change to her body.
“I started to feel more exhausted doing very normal things — climbing a flight of stairs, walking down a hallway, things that would never, ever cause any kind of stress," she described of her symptoms.
Having gone for a colonoscopy to determine what exactly was going on with her body, her worst fears were all but confirmed.
Doctors were unable to complete her colonoscopy due to a large tumor obstructing her colon.
In April 2024, she was diagnosed with the colon cancer due to the results, although thankfully following treatment she's now got the all-clear.