A Florida woman was left stunned after discovering that her nonstop burping was a symptom of stage 3 colon cancer.
Bailey McBreen, 24, revealed on TikTok - under the handle @baileysfight - that in October 2021, she started burping "like nobody's business" after she and her fiancé came back from their vacation.
She said in the video that she didn't google the warning sign because she "didn't think twice" about it and assumed that the burping was happening because of the "elevation".
However, Mayo Clinic detailed that burping is linked to gastroesophageal reflux disease which is when stomach acid "repeatedly flows back into the tube connecting your mouth and stomach (esophagus)".
Check out Bailey's video below:In 2022, Bailey - who is a nurse - shared that she then began experiencing "bad" refluxes which occurred around three to four times a day. She ended up going to the doctor about it but medics dismissed it as a sign of her anxiety, as reported by People.
While the reflexes stopped, her health continued to deteriorate as at the beginning of this year she started getting abdominal pain. The doctor gave her an ultrasound and the results indicated that everything was fine.
The patient said that it lasted for around three to four weeks until she began experiencing "excruciating" abdominal pain again. This time she checked herself into a hospital.
A CT scan administrated by a medic demonstrated that she had stage 3 colon cancer and a tumor blocking her large intestine, per the publication.
According to a GoFundMe page set up by Bailey's cousin Courtney Knepp, the cancer is "in her colon and some nodes" so she had to have prompt surgery "in which they removed part of her colon, appendix and took the biopsy." She then waited four weeks before starting chemotherapy and/or radiation.
The cousin shared that Bailey - who is due to get married in December - will have some "financial setbacks" with her soon-to-be husband due to her medical care and lack of work.
Therefore, Knepp is urging people to donate, saying that "any little bit would help them" as "she has a long road of recovery ahead." As of this writing the donations have reached $71,121 which is close to the $75,000 goal.
"Bailey is a light in our family, our Rod’s golden girl, and one of the smartest most amazing young women I know. To know her is to love her," the fundraiser concluded.
Bailey uses her social media pages to encourage young adults to get themselves checked out for skin cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer, even if they are the "healthiest person on the planet".
"Advocate for yourself and know your family history. Don’t be embarrassed to discuss awkward symptoms with your PCP and don’t be scared to go to the doctor," she wrote on Instagram under a TikTok video explaining her cancer journey.
"If you have a family history of colon cancer (even just a parent or sister who had a precancerous polyp) request a colonoscopy and make sure to get one 10 years prior to when they were diagnosed or the polyp was found," she added.
While about 90% of colon cancer cases appear in people over the age of 50, the number of recent cases is said to have increased among adults under 50 years old, per Fight CRC.
Most notably, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 at the age of 40. He tragically passed away from the disease in 2020 at the age of 43.
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