A resident of South Carolina was diagnosed with cancer of the 4th stage: before that, doctors ignored her complaints for months

Casey Ward, a 31-year-old mother, was working as a paramedic in Charleston, South Carolina, when she was struck by a sharp pain in her upper right abdomen. Doctors considered her severe pain to be a gallbladder problem. Tests later revealed she had stage XNUMX cancer, reports Insider.

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Now, the 33-year-old woman said she went to the emergency room after the onset of pain, where doctors ran several tests but told her she was probably just constipated. But that diagnosis "didn't match the pain" and the location in her stomach, the woman said.

Over the course of several months, the pain came back in waves, Ward said, and doctors eventually settled on a diagnosis of "bad gallbladder." But not a single test indicating problems with the gallbladder came back positive. By that time, she had become pregnant with her second child, so even if it was her gallbladder, the removal operation had to wait.

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Throughout her pregnancy, Ward's pain increased. She said she hardly left the house because walking was painful. Even a deep breath caused acute pain. Ward said she begged doctors to perform surgery. “They would say, ‘No, we don’t want to hurt the baby,’” she said. “It’s been a very long nine months.”

Two months after the birth of her daughter, Ward returned to the emergency room with unbearable pain. She couldn't wait for her scheduled surgery, just two days later. This time, the ultrasound showed a tumor the size of a grapefruit, she said.

According to her, even then, the doctor assured Ward that it was most likely a benign disease. “He said: “You are young. You are healthy, ”Ward recalled.

Two weeks later, biopsy results showed cancer. It spread from the bile duct to the leg and lung. One doctor gave her from one day to six months to live.

“I had such a normal day and I was just shocked because you never think this is going to happen to you at 31,” Ward said. “You feel like you stop breathing.”

Now, more than two years later, Ward is continuing his treatment and sharing his story to encourage people to demand answers when they think something is wrong with their bodies. “If we don’t defend ourselves, no one will,” she said.

Ward's treatment does not allow her to be as active with her children as she would like.

According to the Mayo Clinic, bile duct cancer affects the small tubes that connect the liver to the gallbladder and intestines. They are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, making them difficult to treat. The five-year survival rate for those whose cancer has spread to other organs is 2%.

Doctors told Ward that her pregnancy hormones may have accelerated the spread of the cancer. Ward said her love for her daughter, now 1, dwarfs any regrets about not being diagnosed earlier.

Ward underwent intravenous chemotherapy for over a year, but switched to oral chemotherapy when she began to shed fluid in her chest. Side effects such as dizziness and skin sores meant she never sat on the floor to play with her children. She is grateful that her husband took on this role. “I am a hugging parent,” she said.

Ward is working with Mayo Clinic doctors who plan to consider her for various experimental treatments if her current treatment stops working.

If Ward can return to work as a paramedic, her experience will help her, she said.

More young women are talking about 'medical gaslighting'

The term "gaslighting" is a type of psychological abuse that consists in denying the facts that happened, and forcing you to question your own adequacy. That is, the gaslighter (the person whose actions are directed at you) systematically and regularly denies the adequacy and realism of your perception.
Studies have shown that women are more likely to fall victim to what is colloquially referred to as "medical gaslighting," or when medical professionals ignore a person's symptoms, refuse tests or treatment, and end up misdiagnosing them.

There is more and more talk of life-changing consequences. Lois Walker, a 37-year-old UK mom, said she made 20 calls and made several emergency room visits due to severe pain but was told she had no health issues. She said that it wasn't until after the caesarean section that doctors discovered she had tumors in her ovaries, abdomen, and lymph nodes.

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It took 23-year-old Chloe Girardier five months and seven doctor visits for doctors to take her persistent cough and weight loss seriously, The Sun reports. She had Hodgkin's lymphoma.

And 20-year-old Georgia Ford said her pain, cramps, vomiting and weight loss were dismissed as "all in your head." She had stage 4 kidney cancer.

“Women are not believed and this leads to significant delays in care, misdiagnosis, late diagnosis, ineffective treatment,” said Dr. Garima Sharma, an internist and cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University. “Women pay a very high price.”

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