Nurse Diagnosed with Rectal Cancer at 33 Reveals 2 Symptoms Doctors Dismissed
She was healthy, young, active and had no risk factors for colorectal cancer, but there were warning signs. "It can happen to anybody, and we still don’t know why," her surgeon says.
At 35, Katie Dutton is already a rectal cancer survivor, an ordeal that started with seemingly benign symptoms doctors initially dismissed.
She was told to change her diet and was treated for hemorrhoids before a colonoscopy finally revealed a mass at the end of her digestive system.
“It was shocking — it was just pure shock,” Dutton, a nurse who lives in Tacoma, Washington, tells TODAY.com about her diagnosis.
“I had no risk factors.”
In May 2022, Dutton suddenly started experiencing constipation. She’d never had that issue before, but while on vacation in Las Vegas, she noticed she didn’t have a bowel movement for a week.
In December of that year, she saw a big gush of bright red blood after a bowel movement and then consistent bleeding almost every time she went to the bathroom.
When Dutton mentioned those warning signs to her doctor, she was told it was probably hemorrhoids that were acting up because of the constipation. The physician’s advice was to eat more fiber.
“When I started having symptoms, (colorectal cancer) was sort of on my radar, but still I was like, ‘Nah, probably not,’” she recalls.
“Bright red blood in the stool can be caused by hemorrhoids so I kind of took them at their word on that. I thought it was hemorrhoids.”
