Woman With Stage 4 Colon Cancer Shares 5 Symptoms She Ignored

A single mum from Houston, Texas is sounding the alarm after dismissing the early warning signs of colorectal cancer.

In a TikTok that has racked up 2.3 million views, Radwah Oda — who is now battling stage 4 colon cancer while working in her office — broke down the five symptoms she ignored and explained why she got rid of them.

Her advice: “If you have any of these symptoms, please don’t worry, but see a doctor. Advocate for yourself.”

Changes in stool

For Oda, one of the first warning signs was a subtle but disturbing change in her bowel movements.

Her stool suddenly became thin and pencil-like every time she used the bathroom. “My reasoning at the time was that it must be constipation,” she recalls.

While experts say that occasional loose stools aren’t necessarily a cause for concern, persistent changes in the shape of the stool — especially if it’s flat or ribbon-like — can be a sign of a narrowing or obstruction in the colon, often in the colon. related to colorectal cancer.

But that wasn’t the only red flag Oda ignored. She also noticed blood in her stool, but chalked it up to hemorrhoids.

Blood in the stool can sometimes be related to less serious conditions, but it’s also a classic symptom of colon cancer that experts warn should never be dismissed. In fact, a 2024 study highlighted blood in the stool as one of the two main “red flag” symptoms of early-onset colon cancer, especially in younger patients.

Oda also started to feel like her bowels weren’t emptying completely, no matter how many times she went to the bathroom.

“Every time I used the toilet, I would feel like I still needed to go,” she told her viewers. “I would keep pushing and pushing, but nothing would come out.”

Once again, Oda brushed it off as just constipation. In reality, this feeling – called tenesmus – is a common symptom of colorectal cancer. A tumor in the rectum or lower intestine can cause a constant feeling of needing to go, even when the bowel is empty.

The tumor can also irritate the nerves in the wall of the rectum, sending false signals to the brain that the bowels need to be emptied.

Unexplainable pain

While abdominal discomfort is a well-known symptom of colon cancer, unexplained pain elsewhere in the body may signal that the cancer has spread.

For Oda, she suddenly felt pain in her lower right side near her chest. “I just assumed my bra was too tight, even though it was only on one side,” she said.

In reality, this pain would turn out to be a sign that her cancer had metastasized to her liver.

Chronic fatigue

Amidst all the changes in her bowel movements and unexplained pain, Oda says she also struggled with constant exhaustion.

“I had extreme chronic fatigue, no matter how many hours of sleep I got at night,” Oda said. “I have to take a nap several times during the day and nothing really helped.”

She said she first noticed the symptom during the coronavirus pandemic, brushing it off as her body adjusted to working from home. Indeed, her exhaustion was caused by the cancer cells using up her body’s energy.

People with colon cancer may also feel tired due to blood loss from polyps or tumors that bleed into the digestive tract, potentially leading to iron deficiency anemia – a condition that causes constant fatigue.

Other signs

Oda has gained a large following on TikTok as she shares the reality of living with stage 4 colorectal cancer, the fourth most common cancer in the U.S. Each year, approximately 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease, and a growing number of them are young people. .

In a separate video, she shared even more symptoms she experienced in the two weeks leading up to her diagnosis on August 16, 2021. These included sudden weight loss, loss of appetite and constant stomach pains.

Up until an hour before doctors broke the news of her cancer, Oda dismissed these symptoms and her inability to keep food or liquids down as “a really bad stomach bug.”