A 26-year-old woman was bloated and thought she had hemorrhoids. She was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

• She thought her rectal swelling and bleeding was due to hemorrhoids or GI issues.

• She was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and is undergoing treatment.

For about a year, Mariana wasn’t sure what to make of her swelling.

At times, she assumed it was just part of being a woman with a regular menstrual cycle. She also had some friends with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, thinking she had similar GI problems.

Then, in April, she noticed blood in her stool – one of the most common symptoms of colon cancer in young people.

“That alarmed me a little bit,” Tata, 26, told Business Insider. When she didn’t go for a month, she called her primary care doctor, who believed the cause was hemorrhoids but sent Tata to do an abdominal scan just in case, since she had also been diagnosed with anemia a few years earlier and suddenly had worsening symptoms.

The scan revealed a 20 centimeter tumor on one of her ovaries. Tata was sent to Syracuse Hospital in New York, where further tests led to a diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer, with the cancer spreading to her abdominal wall. Soon after, her two ovaries and fallopian tubes will be removed, Tata will lose her ability to have biological children.

Tata, who was still in treatment, remembers being shocked. “When you’re young, you don’t think it’s cancer,” she said. “Colon cancer was not on my mind at all.”

Cancer changed her life plans

Before her diagnosis, Tata and her boyfriend discussed their future: Having children and buying a house together.

Plans changed when she needed surgery to remove the large mass on her right ovary, which she soon learned damaged her left ovary as well. “There was no option to save any of my eggs,” Tata said, meaning she would have to carry eggs or embryos donated through IVF.

For now, said Tata, this means that she is leaving the idea of ​​having children. Knowing that she would have to pay for the cancer treatment also made her rethink other plans, such as the house.

Before her deductible hit, she was “scrounging together” as much as she could to pay for the ER visits, CT scan, abdominal scan, and blood work. While she said some friends helped put together a GoFundMe to help with expenses, she is still paying a hospital bill from the summer that cost nearly $1,000, and anticipates future treatment costs.

“It’s very rough, especially in your 20s and 30s when you plan to use your money for something else and then you get hit with cancer,” she said. “You have to reevaluate what you’re spending your money on.”

Sharing time between her boyfriend and parents

Tata splits her time between two homes, based on her chemotherapy schedule. The night before the next treatment, she leaves the apartment she shares with her boyfriend to go to her parents’ house. Because her boyfriend works and her parents are retired, she can get more 24-hour care there.

“My mom is the one who nursed me back to health, basically,” Tata said, giving her anti-nausea medication around the clock. “My family has been absolutely amazing, and I think I’m so strong because of them because they carry me whenever I can’t do it anymore.”

Tata, who had parts of her colon removed before starting chemotherapy, feels that she recovers better from the treatments than other cancer patients she has spoken to. On the alternating weeks that she does not have chemotherapy, she said that she almost forgets that she has cancer, and focuses more on getting her health back.

But the days when she is disconnected from her chemo pump are brutal, usually lasting from Wednesday to Monday.

“It kind of punches you in the face and reminds you every two weeks that you have to go through this and be sick,” she said. “It’s just kind of my new reality.”

It makes sense of her diagnosis

As of now, Tata is considered stable, with no progression of the cancer as chemotherapy treatment continues.

“My oncologist expects me to go back to work in February, which is very nice,” she said. Tata, who is still employed as an enrollment operations assistant at her alma mater, Utica University, went on short-term and long-term disability during treatment.

She is hoping that her treatments will become more spread out after chemotherapy, helping her return more closely to the routine she had before her diagnosis.

She said connecting with other colon cancer patients through the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and a Facebook group helped her become more comfortable sharing her experience.

“At the beginning of my diagnosis, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” she said. “I felt so alone, and I wasn’t ready to talk to people.” Connecting with others made it easier to deal with her ongoing treatment.

Her advice: Get a second opinion

It also made her more aware of the rising rates of cancer among young people.

“I feel that the young people are the forgotten margin who face this,” she said. Considering how subtle the symptoms of colon cancer can be, she hopes other young people will take action if they feel a change in their bodies.

“Go to the doctor, it’s big or small,” she said. “Because what I thought was a small thing turned into a very big thing.”

She also stressed to advocate for yourself and even seek a second opinion, because “not many doctors jump when you notice bleeding in your stool.” In her case, she is thankful that she took immediate action.

“If my doctor hadn’t recommended a CT scan or an abdominal scan, I don’t know where I’d be right now,” she said.

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