DOCTOR'S ORDERS
I had a cancerous tumour removed when I was 6 months pregnant – but docs DIDN’T tell me until after my baby was born
Rachel Avon says if it hadn't been for her unborn baby girl, docs wouldn't have spotted her cancer
WHEN Rachel Avon started suffering tummy pains at six months' pregnant she went to see her midwife.
She was sent to hospital where doctors told the expectant mum she needed to have her appendix out.
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Believing she was suffering nothing more than a case of appendicitis, Rachel went in for surgery.
But during the operation, specialists discovered something far more sinister - a tumour growing on her appendix.
They removed it, but took the decision not to tell Rachel and her husband Ross, 35.
It was only three months later - four days after giving birth - that doctors told Rachel she had a rare form of cancer.
"It all started with agonising pains in my stomach, I was terrified it was linked to my unborn baby so I called the midwife," she said.
"The midwife advised I go to hospital, which definitely got me thinking the worst."
It was there, doctors told Rachel she needed an op to remove her appendix.
"I believed I had appendicitis," she added.
"I was really nervous having surgery at six months' pregnant. It was a huge thing, but they said, despite being pregnant, they had to put my life before the baby's.
"It was an extremely difficult time, but as I was already a mum, to Ffion, who was only one at the time, I understood I had to put myself first."
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Rachel was told the operation had been a success, and she continued with her pregnancy until Cari arrived at 41 weeks.
Four days after her daughter was born, Rachel was asked to come back into hospital - for what she thought was a follow-up after her appendectomy.
When I discovered that doctors hadn’t told me about my cancer I was so shocked – in the short term it didn’t feel like the right decision but five years on, I know it was the right decision they made for us
Rachel Avon
But, the 34-year-old was shocked when her consultant told her she had been diagnosed with a rare cancer, pseudomyxoma peritoneii, which affects the appendix, bladder and ovaries.
The weight of her growing unborn baby had caused her painful symptoms to flare up, doctors explained.
Rachel said: "When I discovered that doctors hadn't told me about my cancer I was so shocked.
"In the short-term it didn't feel like the right decision.
"But five years on, I know it was the right decision they made for us."
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She added: "Doctors reasoning for not telling me until Cari was born was due to the fact I wouldn't be able to have an MRI to see if the cancer had spread until after the baby was born."
As soon as Cari arrived, doctors sent Rachel for scans to check her cancer.
Fortunately, they found it hadn't spread.
"If the tumour was to have spread, I'd have needed a major operation - something known as 'the mother of all surgeries' (MOAS) - as chemotherapy wouldn't have worked," Rachel added.
Symptoms of pseudomyxoma peritonei
Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a very rare type of cancer that affects just one in 3,000,000 people.
It tends to begin in your appendix as a small growth but it can also start in the bowel, ovary or bladder.
Eventually, it'll start to spread cancerous cells to the lining of the abdominal cavity.
Although it's cancerous, it doesn't spread to other parts of the body - it just grows and spreads inside the belly.
Symptoms can include:
- abdominal or pelvic pain
- not being able to become pregnant
- abdominal swelling and bloating
- changes in bowel habits
- hernia (a bulge in the tummy wall or groin)
- loss of appetite
- feeling of fullness
says that doctors often find it by accident during treatment for other conditions - as in Rachel's case.
The only way of properly diagnosing it is to open up the abdomen in an operation and have a look around, although you can also have CT and ultrasound scans.
"MOAS is where they remove all the organs you don't need and internally wash all the others to reduce the number of cancer cells.
"It sounds terrible so I'm very lucky I didn't need to have it."
Looking back, Rachel - who is now cancer free - believes her daughter Cari saved her life.
Had it not been for her pregnancy, she said her symptoms may not have appeared until it was too late, and the cancer had already spread.
The primary school teacher from Newport, in Wales, said: "Cari really is a special girl.
"It was because of being pregnant that it triggered the issue with my appendix meaning I needed surgery.
"Without the surgery, my tumour wouldn't have been accidentally found.
"Without her, my cancer could have been a very different story.
MORE ON CANCER
"Now, I'm healthier and happier than ever; I even recently ran the London Marathon to raise money for Cancer Research UK."
She's now hoping to raise awareness of pseudomyxoma peritoneli in order to help others.
"I'm over the moon to be cancer free."
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