25-Year-Old Finishes 12 Rounds of Chemo, But One Week Later, Doctors Discover Another Life-Threatening Emergency (Exclusive)

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Paige Seifert knew something was wrong when she saw blood in her stool

• The then 24-year-old’s concerns were initially dismissed before he was eventually diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer

• Now in remission, Seifert shares videos about her experience on TikTok and talks to PEOPLE about how she’s doing today

Paige Seifert knew something was wrong when she saw blood in her stool during a trip with friends in August 2024.

Seifert, who was 24 at the time, told herself that if things didn’t clear up by the following week, she would go to the doctor. So when the week passed and nothing improved, she didn’t waste any more time before making an appointment.

During the checkup, the doctor asked if her family had a history of gastrointestinal (GI) issues. When she said no, they told her it was probably hemorrhoids and would go away after a week with the help of some stool softener.

“It didn’t pan out, but thankfully, I happened to have a physical a month later,” Seifert tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I went to the physical, and it was still happening consistently. They said, ‘We’re going to send you to a GI specialist to get the hemorrhoids banded.’ They were like, ‘It’s still hemorrhoids. It can’t be anything else. You’re 24, your blood looks great. You’re not anemic. There’s really no concern.’ “

By the time she finally went to the GI specialist in December 2024, she was still dealing with the same symptoms. He then scheduled a colonoscopy for the following month to get an overview before going in for hemorrhoid surgery.

“This is all like a six-month process, because referrals take forever, especially when you’re 24 and healthy,” she says. “There’s no real rush to get you to the doctor.”

However, when she finally had her colonoscopy in January 2025, everything changed.

“I finally get the colonoscopy, and I wake up, and the doctor is there and immediately gives me the news that they found cancer. They didn’t even have to do a biopsy or anything,” she says.

Immediately after, they referred her to an oncologist to make an action plan. She was officially diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer a week later.

They told Seifert she would need 12 rounds of chemotherapy and a colon resection — or a colectomy, surgery to remove all or part of the colon. They told her it didn’t matter which she did first, so on February 12, 2025, Seifert had a port placed in her chest and officially started chemo five days later.

“I was like, ‘It’s ski season, so if you guys give me the green light to ski, let’s do chemo now and surgery later,'” she says. “I did eight rounds of chemo, I took a month off so I could recover for the surgery. Then I had my surgery, and then I had a temporary ileostomy.”

After stopping chemo, she had colon resection surgery and a temporary ileostomy – which allows digestive waste to exit the small intestine through a stoma in the abdomen – in July 2025.

“A month later, they reversed that ileostomy. Then I finished four more rounds of chemo,” Seifert shares.

During the process, Seifert says she was so lucky to “have such a great support system.”

“My mom flew in from Texas to come to my colonoscopy, just because I needed a ride,” she tells PEOPLE. “I think she was a bit upset, so she came with me, and right from the doctor who told me I had cancer, I had her next to me.”

“As soon as I told my friends, they were very supportive. Dad flew to the first oncology appointment, and he flew to the first chemo treatment,” she adds.

Unfortunately, Seifert shares that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time, so she had to take steps back to focus on her own health.

However, going through chemo at the same time combined the two even more, says Seifert.

“That was a great support system too, because my mom is already very supportive, and then she could feel my pain, which I hate that she had to go through it too, but to be able to talk to someone who knows exactly what chemo is and who is going through it with you is really great,” she says. “It’s hard to find that community at the cancer center because I’m probably the youngest person there by twenty years.”

Along with the support of her loved ones, Seifert, an avid skier, says the physical activity has kept her “positive and happy.” She would come in every Monday for treatment, get the infusion, then take a few days to rest, and on the weekend, she would ski about 15 miles.

After 10 months, Seifert officially finished treatment on November 17, 2025. However, just one week later, doctors discovered a 5cm blood clot near her heart and a pulmonary embolism, which turned out to be a fluke.

“The doctors were quite shocked that I was alive and sitting up and talking,” she says, explaining that she had simply gone for a follow-up CT scan after finishing chemo.

“My doctor called me two hours later and said, ‘Hey, are you having chest pains?’ I said, ‘No, I just got back from an eight-mile mountain bike ride. I feel great.’ He says, ‘You need to go to the hospital now. You’re going to have a heart attack or die.’ “

“I went straight to the hospital and was there for a week during Thanksgiving, and I had surgery to remove it,” she shares.

Now, Seifert says she “feels great,” which she admits “is a crazy thing to say” considering she “had stage 3 cancer and had to think about my mortality at an age that I don’t think people should have to think about death.”

“But even going through all that, I feel better than I did before,” she says. “I have this whole new appreciation for every day just because I feel like it could be taken away at any time.”

“I just had a greater appreciation for life, which I think makes me feel better, even though I’m still sick, I’m still suffering from all the side effects of chemo. I’m grateful to be alive and I want to maximize everything I can,” adds Seifert.

One of the worst side effects, she says, was dealing with neuropathy – nerve damage that often leads to numbness or tingling in the hands and feet.

“Since September, after my colon resection surgery, I haven’t been able to feel my legs or my fingertips. It’s hard to choose things. I can’t write with a pencil. I can’t run because I can’t feel my legs,” says Seifert, noting that it could be something she deals with for the rest of her life.

After Seifert posted a video about her cancer journey online, she received an influx of comments from people close to her in the Denver area sharing similar stories. From there, she was able to build a community of people who were either going through cancer treatment or were survivors.

“I had a lot of bad side effects and hospitalizations because of chemo and my port and that thing. People were invested, but they were also related to my experience. There was a lot of community that was there,” shares Seifert.

With a few of her friends, she made a short film about her experience, which forced her to look at what she went through “a little more seriously”.

“It would be really useful for me to reflect on everything that happened. I stayed athletic, and I didn’t really think about it. I was in survival mode,” she shares. “My partner and I had a conversation recently about how tired I am all the time because of chemo. This sparked a conversation about what this treatment means for our relationship.”

“I thought a lot about death last year. I grew to accept death as a concept. I found an acceptance that when it’s time, it’s time, and to make the best of everything because I could die in a car accident tomorrow,” she continues. “Nothing is promised. It made me more appreciative of everything around me. But it was also scary to think that I would die at 25.”

While she knows that “there’s no reason anyone should ever get cancer or ever go through this,” she still tries to find a “silver lining.”

“It makes me want to travel more. It makes me want to seize more opportunities,” she shares. “I always prioritize my job, savings, and all that. I kept working throughout my treatment, and now I’m like, let’s go to Japan for two weeks and go skiing. I take every opportunity I can to do what I want to do and explore what I want to explore.”

Read the original article on People