Irritable intestine syndrome It affects up to 45 million Americans, so when Sara Beran found frequently running to the bathroom, she assumed it was just another case.
The healthy 34 -year -old Dalt with the problem for more than a year and a half before his life stopped with a heartbreaking diagnosis: Stage 4 Colorectal cancer.
With a husband, two young children and a small prosperous business on the line, Beran knew that there was only one option: the fight. “I had to overcome it,” he told the post. “There was no other option.”
A threat on rise
Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is classified as the third most common cancer in the United States, Conformity with the American Cancer Society.
Once thought of mainly affecting older adults, it is now emerging among younger populations, with diagnoses in people under 50 who are expected to be doubled by 2030.
Even more alarm, younger adults like Beran are often Diagnosed in more advanced stagesWhen the disease is more difficult to treat and survival rates collapse. As a result, it is now the most fatal cancer for men under 50 and the second most deadly for women in the same age group.
Pressing the answers in a pandemic
In April 2020, Beran was a busy mother juggling with the demands of a 3 -year -old boy and a 5 -year -old boy while working as a stylist.
“I had a super healthy and active lifestyle, but I have always had some stress and anxiety,” he said. While he often felt exhausted, he attributed it to the chaos of family life and the pressures of his career.
“They took my husband to a room and we tolerated me that they had found about 100 polyps in my colon and a dough in my rectum.”
Sarah Beran
Whenever blood He began to appear sporadically in his stool, Beran wrinkled him, thinking that he was nothing more than Ibs or perhaps hemorrhoids.
“I had two babies, so that is very common,” he said. Beran also noticed her The feces were thinner Of the usual, but without stomach cramps or other alarming symptoms, he did not think much about that.
But when the blood persisted, Beran decided to visit his primary care doctor.
The doctor assured him that it was probably nothing to worry about, but acknowledged that colon cancer was becoming more common in younger people. He sent Beran to a gastroenterologist, who suspended a parasite was behind his symptoms and sent him home with a stool.
The test returned normal, and the specialist put it in probiotics. “She seemed very worried at all,” said Beran, is not sure that anything was really bad.
However, as the bleeding worsened, so did Beran’s fears.
“I am not an aggressive person at all, habitual what is the doctor who is well,” he said. “But I got to the point where there was so much blood in my stool that I returned and basically I forced them to give me an appointment because it was Covid and they are hurting many patients.”
This time, Beran showed his doctor a photo of the blood and was immediately referred to for a Colonoscopy. Just then, colon cancer was far from your mind.
“I was always one of those people who thought it would never happen to me or anyone in my family,” he admitted.
But when he woke up from the test, his life changed forever.
“They took my husband to a room and we tolerated me that they had found about 100 polyps in my colon and a mass in my rectum,” he said.
At that time, Beran said he was in shock.
“We drove home in silence, just thinking about how life would look and how we were going to drive it with our children and tell our families,” he recalled. “But then you enter the fashion fashion. You understand this force that you did not know what you have.”
Chemotherapy, surgery and more cancer
Beran endured six rounds of chemotherapy before undergoing surgery to remove the colon. He also obtained an ileostomy, in which the end of the small intestine is carried through a small abdomen opening, allowing waste to get out of the body and collect in a bag.
“I realized that I care in life is my family. He taught me how to be more present.”
Sarah Beran
He lived with the ileostomy bag for five months while undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy and innumerable radiation episodes.
For some, including Beran, ileostomies are reversible. He underwent reversal surgery in December 2020, but the joy of canceling the ileostomy bag was short.
The doctors soon told him that cancer had spread to his lungs, and that he had to undergo another surgery to eliminate it, in addition to more radiation.
Finally free of cancer
Today, Beran has been free of cancer for three years.
“After two years of being free from cancer, its chances of returning from 90% to 10%, so when I reached the two -year brand, it was a big problem,” he said.
Now you just have to get scanning every six months, and will be reduced once a year when you reach the five -year brand.
Beyond discovering his strength, Beran said the experience changed his perspective of life.
“I used to be so wrapped in the hustle and bustle of the fashion industry and what follows,” he said. “I realized that everything I care in life is my family. He taught me how to be more present. Just enjoy simple things. Other things don’t matter.”
Beran also realized that he could no longer put the rear burner, as many women do for their families.
“Taking care helps to be a better and better wife,” he said. “I am trying to make that more priority.”
Determined to make a difference, Beran has also become a defender in the fight against Colon cancer.
Together with her friend Brooks BellTo whom he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in stadium 3 at age 38, Beran co -founded the fashion brand World class. The brand aims to break the stigma surrounding colon cancer and promoting early detection.
The duo also donates prosecuted to finance colonoscopies for those who cannot pay them.
“The conclusion is that colonoscopies prevent colon cancer,” Bell told The Post, explaining how the procedure helps doctors to detect and eliminate polyps, abnormal growths in the colon lining, before being generous.
Beran emphasized that the elimination of these polyps is not as painful as many people believe.
“You don’t feel it,” he said. “It is much better to obtain a colonoscopy and eliminate them than to go through cancer treatments.”
He encouraged patients to avoid hurrying the first treatment plan that is presented to them, especially if you do not feel good to look for a second opinion when necessary.
“If I had done that, I think I would probably still have a bag of ileostomy,” Beran said. “You have to find a doctor who knows the best plan for you and your life.”
