A man who thought he was hungover has revealed how his symptoms after a night out actually turned out to be bowel cancer.
Rob McPherson was hit with a bout of nausea and vomiting one Saturday after being having a few drinks with friends the night before. However this only worsened, causing him to barely be able to keep any food or drink down, reports the Mirror.
The 39-year-old from Miles Platting told the Manchester Evening News: “I started feeling ill one Saturday and was throwing up. I thought I had eaten too much and drunk too much. I didn’t want to eat anything and was just throwing up.
“It was then that I thought it was just a general sickness bug. I felt like I wanted to eat, but whenever I did, it just came back up again. Anything that went down came back up. I started to not want to eat or drink anything. I was getting pains every now and again. I was feeling bloated and ill, with hardly any sleep at all.”
He became so ill, he was forced to take a week off from his job as a digital media officer at a local school, something he never usually did. After suffering for three weeks, he contacted the NHS 111 service on the advice of his partner, with medics immediately arranging an ambulance.
Rob was rushed to Manchester Royal Infirmary. He recalled: “I thought, ‘Oh dear, something could be wrong here.’ I just thought I was intolerant to bread, beer, chocolate or something like that. I was like a typical man – I thought I could beat it and that I’d get over it. Even at that point, I thought I would be fine.”
Unfortunately, scans revealed a blockage in his bowel, leading to him having a stoma fitted to allow waste to leave his body. Three weeks later, just before Christmas in 2017, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer after doctors found a tumour.
Rob said: “Cancer was never on my radar at all. I was only 32 at that point. It’s mostly over-50s who get bowel cancer. “When they found out it was cancer, I was a little bit surprised. I was told it could be colitis or another stomach issue. It floored me.
“I received a stoma and was then told the diagnosis – there were three weeks between the surgery and knowing for certain. I didn’t know during that period if it was cancer or not. They had said it could be things like colitis or something like that.
“You always think it happens to other people – people who are older, smokers, drinkers, or something like that. It just came as a shock for someone my age. At the start, I thought, no, I can’t have it because I’m not old enough, and I look after myself well enough.”
Rob said the difficult news was made easier to deal with by the kindness of hospital staff. He added: “When I got it [my diagnosis], the nurse told me about the next steps and gave me something to aim towards.
“It’s good to have those steps in your head – what’s coming up and what you can do about it. I quite liked the fact that the nurse was sympathetic, lovely and nice, but also practical which is what I needed.”
Rob went through several weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy ahead of an operation to remove the tumour. Unfortunately, the effects of his treatment include being unable to have children, but he has chosen to preserve his fertility by doing a sperm bank.
Thankfully, he is now cancer-free and uses his own story to raise awareness of bowel cancer.
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