A father has shared the crucial warning sign that prompted him to visit his doctor, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of a serious cancer.
Chris Kirt, from the UK, received a diagnosis of colon cancer last year after he began experiencing a variety of symptoms.
In a post on his TikTok account, @official_chriskirt, he recounted: “Last year, in August, I started showing symptoms of bowel cancer.”
“They were the typical symptoms you’d expect: irregular bowel movements, bleeding, cramps, urgency to go to the bathroom, not being able to go to the bathroom—essentially all the red flags.”
“But there was one that stood out more than anything else.”
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Diagnosed at 31, Chris noticed he was bleeding without any accompanying pain.
“The one red flag that was really worrying was that I’d had zero pain when I was passing a bowel movement and there was blood,” he explained.
“When you have blood you expect to have some sort of pain, so if it’s bright red, the doctors tell you it could be a pile or a fissure.”
“I was losing thick, dark red blood, light to begin with and then dark at the end, with zero pain whatsoever.”
In the comments section, Chris detailed how the blood ‘started off small bright red [and] got worse over time to dark red and clots.’
He also mentioned that the bleeding was not consistent; it was intermittent, occurring occasionally with bowel movements.
Upon noticing these symptoms, he visited a doctor who scheduled a colonoscopy. However, due to long waiting times, Chris opted for a private appointment.
During this appointment, he discovered he had cancer.
“I had been sedated, but I was still aware of what was going on,” he recalled.
“I look at the screen and the first thing I see is this big giant snotty ball on the side of my colon.”
“I know it’s not right. The room goes quiet. The doctors aren’t saying anything. I look at the screen and say, ‘What is that? That’s cancer.'”
“They’re telling me to calm down, I’m starting to sweat and get stressed out… they gave me more sedation and it knocks me out.”
“I don’t remember anything after that.”
“I woke up and I was in the recovery room. I see a doctor to my left with a notepad and a few nurses to my right and I immediately knew it wasn’t good.”
Upon waking, Chris was informed of a 5cm tumor in his colon. He underwent surgery to remove a third of his bowel and is now in remission.
Chris is now focused on raising awareness about bowel cancer and its symptoms.
To learn more about his journey, visit his TikTok page.