After fracturing her toe just as she was about to leave on a trip to Tenerife, Spain, 55-year-old Sharon Daley of Brighton, East Sussex, was given a 12 months to live prognosis.
The broken toe wasn’t the issue. She found out her fate after she returned from her trip.
Although in excruciating pain, she went on vacation and hobbled on her injured foot.
She returned home but was unable to walk, so she visited the doctor to make sure her foot wasn’t fractured. She mentioned she was nauseous and out of breath. Oddly, she needed two transfusions since her blood levels had plummeted so low. Additional diagnostic procedures identified a potentially cancerous bleeding ulcer in her stomach. It took two weeks for her diagnosis to be verified.
Doctors discovered she had stage four stomach cancer.
They had intended to treat it with surgery at first, but then, on May 17, she was delivered the devastating news that her condition was dire. Following a laparoscopy, Sharon learned that her disease could not be cured with the planned procedure to remove a portion of her pancreas and stomach.
Sharon had twelve months left if she sought treatment and a three- to six-month prognosis without. She chose to prolong her life.
With any luck, Sharon will be able to cross a few things off her bucket list this year and then spend the rest of her life with her family and friends. She would also want to plan a trip to Italy’s Portofino and spend the night on the Orient Express.
The signs of stomach cancer, like those of many other types of cancer, might be hard to notice.
See a doctor if you have any of the following symptoms for more than a few weeks:
- Gastric reflux disease
- The sensation of being satiated after eating very little
- Issues with swallowing
- Expel gas often
- Lack of hunger
- Loss of weight without trying
- Discomfort felt in the upper abdomen
- Weakness or lack of vitality
- Unusual feces color or presence of blood
