"Before Mohammad Samad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 37, he felt in the best shape of his life. "I was eating all my greens, making those healthy smoothies in the morning. I was cycling, I was exercising. I was doing yoga and meditation," the former project manager, who is basedin the UK, told Business Insider. A sudden, stabbing pain in Samad's lower abdomen in October 2020, which lasted 20 seconds, was the first sign that something was wrong."
"By December, the pain was more intense and happening every morning and night. He could also feel a hard, golf ball-sized lump in the area. Soon, he was exhausted all the time, and oftenconstipated and bloated. The lunch breaks he used to spend shooting hoops at a local park became nap time. Samad presumed his symptoms were related to stress and his diet, or that he possibly had COVID-19. "In my head, it didn't seem that bad," he said."
"In the five months that followed, he made multiple visits to three different doctors and was misdiagnosed with stress, IBS, and Crohn's disease. Eventually, Samad was diagnosed with colon cancer. "They would look at me and go, ' You're young, you're fit, you're healthy. We can see that.' And so they assume that it is a minor thing," he said of his doctor's visits."
Mohammad Samad, a 37-year-old former project manager in the UK, developed a sudden stabbing abdominal pain in October 2020 followed by increasing pain, a palpable golf ball-sized lump, exhaustion, bloating, and constipation. He initially attributed symptoms to stress, diet, or COVID-19 and delayed seeking care until January 2021. Over five months, multiple doctors misdiagnosed him with stress, IBS, and Crohn's disease before diagnosing stage 3 colon cancer. Symptoms of colon cancer overlap with other conditions, which can lead clinicians to underestimate risk in younger, fit patients.
Read at Business Insider
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