Young mum reveals how she signed her own ‘death warrant’ after ignoring her stomach pain and avoiding the doctor because she felt ‘stupid’ and didn’t want to cause a fuss

A young single mother has revealed how she signed her own ‘death warrant’ after ignoring painful stomach cramps for six months.

Nicole Murphy felt ‘stupid’ when she went to the doctor about the pain. When she finally did, they sent her away saying it was probably due to her age or diet.

By the time Nicole felt confident enough to ask for more answers, it was too late: tests revealed she had stage four colon cancer, an incurable disease.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Nicole said she received the devastating news on February 1, about six months after the persistent cramps in her lower abdomen began.

The 44-year-old initially assumed she was entering perimenopause. As the months passed, she lost weight but had no other symptoms such as bleeding or changes in her bowel movements.

“I was fit, well, healthy, I exercised regularly, I did everything right. I’ve never had any problems, so this was really out of my reach,” Nicole told FEMAIL.

She visited her GP, but tests showed nothing of concern. When the cramps persisted, she went back to the doctor for an ultrasound and still nothing showed up.

Nicole was told not to worry about her stomach pain because she was young and healthy. She was also told to consider starting the FODMAP diet.

Single mother Nicole Murphy (pictured with her sons Finn, right, and Nate, left) was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer on February 1

The 44-year-old from regional Victoria was fit, healthy, eating well and had only one symptom for six months: cramps

“No matter what I did, the cramps wouldn’t go away,” Nicole said.

“In December I knew something was wrong because it was too painful. But because I lived in a rural area I couldn’t get an appointment with a GP at that time,” she said.

Nicole went to the ER, despite feeling “stupid” for doing so because of the cramps. She had blood tests done and it showed that the inflammation levels were high, which meant that something was wrong.

Doctors performed a CT scan which showed a mass on Nicole’s left side, but they still didn’t know what it was.

“Then they thought it was colitis (an inflammation of the colon) and sent me home on antibiotics,” she said.

‘Over Christmas I never felt well and lost more weight, which was my second symptom. I was given an appointment with the GP who prescribed me the same antibiotics and told me to come back in a week if I wasn’t feeling better.’

Five days later, Nicole became seriously ill with a high fever and knew something was seriously wrong.

‘It was a Sunday night, I took a Panadol and went to bed. The next morning I was very dizzy and felt like I was going to faint. The children went to their father and I went to the hospital,” she said.

‘Then they blamed it on colitis again – I couldn’t believe it. I sat in the waiting room for hours before I complained of acute abdominal pain and knew it wasn’t colitis.

‘That’s when it all started… I had a scan and the radiologist said I had a perforated bowel. But cancer wasn’t being considered at this stage – they thought it was an infection.’

While the colon cancer was being removed, additional tumors were found in her liver, spine and abdominal wall

Nicole stayed in the hospital for a week with pain medication and antibiotics before the surgeon decided that surgery was necessary to determine the cause of her symptoms.

On January 22, Nicole went to the hospital for a bowel resection and had 20 cm of her descending colon removed.

During the procedure, doctors also discovered the worst: a cancerous tumor that was removed along with several lymph nodes.

But the sinister lump had punctured her abdominal wall, leading to other problems.

Nicole was able to return home on January 29, just in time for her son’s birthday the next day. Two days later she received the shocking news that tests had confirmed cancer.

“It was really scary and surreal; you never think it would happen to you,” Nicole said.

Colon cancer can cause you to have blood in your stool, a change in your bowel movements, a lump in your bowel that can cause an obstruction. Some people also suffer from weight loss as a result of these symptoms

Now Nicole doesn’t know how long she has left to live, but she is determined to beat the cancer and get it under control through immunotherapy

She was sure that everything would be ‘okay’, but after the first four treatments the situation deteriorated dramatically. She started having pains in her abdomen, near her liver.

‘It felt like I had pulled a muscle and I was in pain. When it came back for the third time I started freaking out. So I had a scan done,” she said.

Multiple cancerous spots were found on her liver.

“That was a devastating, moving conversation because it now meant that my whole mentality of ‘It’s fine, this is preventative’ changed because that’s not the case now,” she said.

‘Chemotherapy didn’t work, so we stopped that and switched to immunotherapy two days later.’

Although things went from bad to worse that night – Nicole had a fever, pain in her liver and felt a lump on the side where she had had a bowel resection. She called Bendigo Hospital, which was an hour from her home, and went straight there.

The doctors thought it was an infected abscess and sent her home with a drain. However, a few days later she developed a fever again and had to go to the hospital again.

A PET scan and MRI confirmed news she didn’t want to hear: cancerous spots were found on her liver and on her thoracic spine.

Nicole doesn’t know how long she has left to live, but is determined to beat the cancer and get it under control through immunotherapy.

The good news is that the primary tumor in the liver is removed during the first operation and often acts as ‘fuel’ for secondary tumors.

Nicole recently had the drain removed so she could go swimming during her week-long holiday in Cairns.

‘I have two children who need their mother. They need me,” she said.

‘I went from being incredibly tearful, upset, scared and anxious to being quite angry and determined to think, ‘What do I need to do to overcome this?’.’

Nicole’s most important message to other Australians is: stand up for your body and yourself.

“Listen to the little things your body is telling you and get them checked,” she said.

“And when doctors say, ‘You’re too young,’ you’re never too young. Early detection is everything. I’m convinced that if my bowel hadn’t perforated, I wouldn’t be in this position. It would have been contained and removable.”

If you would like to donate to Nicole’s GoFundMe page, Click here.