Doctors told mum her stomach pain was IBS... but the real diagnosis was life shattering

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Andrea Badgie was 31 when she began experiencing severe pains near her appendix. Following the death of her mum in 2020, Andrea ignored her pain for months until the pain progressed into stomach pain and bouts of constipation.

Doctors diagnosed her with IBS and sent her home with antibiotics and laxatives. Six months later she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery and later given a shattering diagnosis of bowel cancer. READ MORE: 'Any other parent might not have taken their child to the doctor for this' Now 34, Andrea from Manchester is urging those who are unwell to speak up about their symptoms and persist if they feel they are not being heard. “When all of this began and I started becoming unwell, I had just lost my mum in the September,” Andrea revealed. “Losing her, the last thing on my mind was worrying about how I was doing.

I kept putting off going to the doctors so it was a good couple of months of pain and feeling uncomfortable before I went to see one.” Andrea visited her GP in December where she was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), however, she claims the medication was not working and was sent for a couple of ultrasound scans - which didn’t show anything was wrong.

Her GP then diagnosed Andrea with a urinary tract infection (UTI) due to the pain she was experiencing. Andrea said: “I went from IBS to having a UTI that travelled back into the liver, and that's what was causing the pain, apparently. “I was on antibiotics for months which made me feel alright, but as soon as I stopped taking them, it got worse again.