A single mother from Houston, Texas, is sounding the alarm after dismissing early warning signs of colorectal cancer.

In a TikTok that’s racked up 2.3 million views, Radwah Oda — who is now battling stage 4 colon cancer while working at her office job — broke down the five symptoms she ignored and explained why she brushed them off.

Her advice: “If you have any of these symptoms, please don’t be concerned, but go see a doctor. Advocate for yourself.” 

Changes in stool

For Oda, one of the first warning signs was a subtle but troubling change in her bowel movements.

Her stool suddenly became thin and pencil-like every time she used the bathroom. “My excuse at the time was that it must be constipation,” she recalled. 

While experts say occasional narrow stools aren’t necessarily cause for concern, consistent changes in stool shape — especially if they’re flat or ribbon-like — can be a sign of narrowing or obstruction in the colon, often linked to colorectal cancer.

But that wasn’t the only red flag Oda ignored. She also noticed blood in her stool but chalked it up to hemorrhoids.

Blood in the stool can sometimes be linked to less serious conditions, but it’s also a classic symptom of colon cancer that experts warn should never be brushed off. In fact, a 2024 study highlighted blood in stool as one of the top two “red flag” symptoms of early-onset colon cancer, especially in younger patients.

Oda also started feeling like her bowel wasn’t fully emptying, no matter how many times she went to the bathroom.

“Each time I would use the restroom, I would feel like I still needed to go,” she told her viewers. “I would keep pushing and pushing but nothing would come out.” 

Once again, Oda wrote it off as just constipation. In reality, this feeling — called tenesmus — is a common symptom of colorectal cancer. A tumor in the rectum or lower colon can cause a constant sensation of needing to go, even when the bowel is empty.

The tumor can also irritate nerves in the rectal wall, sending false signals to the brain that the bowel needs to be emptied.

Unexplained pain

While abdominal discomfort is a known symptom of colon cancer, unexplained pain elsewhere in the body can signal that cancer has spread. 

For Oda, she suddenly felt pain in her lower right side near her breast. “I just assumed my bra was too tight, even though it was just on one side,” she said.

In reality, this pain would turn out to be a sign that her cancer had metastasized to her liver.

Chronic fatigue 

Amid all the changes in her bowel movements and unexplained pain, Oda says she also battled constant exhaustion. 

“I had extreme chronic fatigue regardless of how many hours of sleep I slept at night,” Oda shared. “I would still need to take a nap a few times during the day and nothing really helped.” 

She said she first noticed this symptom during the coronavirus pandemic, writing it off as her body adjusting to working from home. In truth, her fatigue was caused by cancer cells using up her body’s energy. 

People with colon cancer can also feel tired due to blood loss from polyps or tumors bleeding into the digestive tract, potentially leading to iron-deficiency anemia — a condition that causes persistent fatigue. 

Other signs 

Oda has gained a large following on TikTok as she shares the reality of living with stage 4 colorectal cancer, the fourth most common cancer in the US. Each year, around 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease, and an increasing number of them are young adults.

In a separate video, she shared even more symptoms she experienced in the two weeks leading up to her diagnosis on Aug. 16, 2021. These included sudden weight loss, loss of appetite and constant stomach pains.

Up until an hour before doctors broke the news about her cancer, Oda dismissed these symptoms and her inability to keep food or liquid down as a “really bad stomach bug.”

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