A woman has revealed how doctors ‘dismissed’ one symptom as a side effect of pregnancy but it was actually a sign of stage three rectal cancer.
Laura Behnke had been praying to see those two lines for years.
The now 46-year-old had grown hopeless, though, after suffering three failed rounds of IVF.
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But then, an embryo was successfully retrieved and with only days until the transfer, she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way.
Until one morning, when she spotted splodges of blood in the toilet.
“I didn’t want that transfer to be jeopardised in any way,” the speaker told Need To Know.
“So I didn’t tell anyone about the bleeding.
“I said to myself, it must be haemorrhoids since I’d been under so much stress.
“All I could do was relax and hope that the bleeding would go away.
“And it did – for just a few months.”
Laura, from California, US, had been “healthy and active” prior to her diagnosis with stage 3b rectal cancer in July 2022.
When the bleeding started, it only happened twice initially and then she fell pregnant with her daughter, Mari, four.
Her entire focus went on the pregnancy – until the start of her second trimester, when it returned.
Soon enough, she gave birth to a healthy little girl and tried to put any worrying signs to the back of her mind.
But then she began experiencing weight loss and tiredness daily.
She said: “I was convinced that as my body had been through so much that it was simply a stress response.
“It’s hard to know for sure [if these symptoms] were because of my pregnancy, postpartum or illness.
“I expected to be tired as the mum of a newborn and I was happy to see the weight coming off.
“As my pregnancy had been healthy, I avoided talking seriously about it all with a doctor because I couldn’t understand how it could be something serious at this stage.
“I had been monitored for months and nothing was ever suspicious.”
After an external haemorrhoid appeared, she was convinced that it had to be down to that – and so did doctors.
Her only option was to get it surgically removed, but at this point, the bleeding had only intensified.
She said: “It was happening each time I had a bowel movement.
“I knew this wasn’t OK but I couldn’t allow myself to believe it was something serious.
“It was far too scary to think about – especially now I had a baby.
“At an exam, though, it was confirmed the bleeding wasn’t coming from a haemorrhoid.
“I was shocked, but still in disbelief.
“And then I was told the reality I had been fearing.”
Laura had a six-centimetre tumour growing inside her rectum and that it was, in fact, cancer.
She said: “I was convinced I was going to die.
“I vowed I would do everything I could to fight it, but believed it might be too late.
“Luckily, it hadn’t spread to any organs – though it was in nearby lymph nodes.”
Laura began with 25 sessions of pelvic radiation along with oral chemotherapy over the course of five weeks, followed by five cycles of chemotherapy over 15 weeks.
She then underwent two major surgeries; a low anterior resection, where the top half of her rectum was removed along with the bottom section of her colon, before being reconnected.
17 lymph nodes were also removed.
In total, it cost $7,000 (USD) alongside her insurance to fund her treatment.
And while the financial weight was a lot to bear, so was the emotional tax.
She said: “I couldn’t pick up anything heavy for weeks and that included my then 13-month-old.
“The side effects from losing part of my digestive tract were serious and lifelong.
“My daughter and I were both in diapers for a while.
“I will never be the same and I spend a lot more time in the bathroom each day than I ever did before.”
Currently, she’s under review every six months and hasn’t shown any signs of the disease since.
It still doesn’t change the fact that Laura worries her life is on the line each day.
She added: “I worry if it’s back, or if a little pain is something serious.
“The anxiety of being a cancer survivor is very real.
“It never goes away.
“I can no longer think that it’s probably nothing because I can’t take anything for granted.
“I feel like I’m constantly walking a tightrope between gratitude and grief.
“I’m so grateful to be alive, but also so fearful it could all change instantly
“I hope I can continue to live a ‘boring’ life with my husband and daughter.
“If I can watch her grow up, then I’ll be happy.
“Don’t take your health for granted.
“If you sense something is off, talk to a doctor.
“Even if it seems embarrassing.
“Have that conversation – it could save your life.”
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