28-Year-Old Mom’s Symptoms Dismissed as Hemorrhoids. Further Testing Revealed a Life-Changing Diagnosis (Exclusive)

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Kalei Martin, a mother of two from Sacramento, was 28 when she began experiencing severe stomach pain, bleeding and other symptoms.

• Initially doctors ignored his symptoms

• After struggling for answers, colonoscopy revealed stage 2 colorectal cancer

At the beginning of 2024, Kalei Martin He began to notice subtle changes in his body that he could not explain.

The Sacramento, Calif., mom of two who works for the state and also runs a photography business specializing in family and newborn portraits found herself going to the bathroom much more often than usual. Shortly thereafter, sharp stomach cramps began to occur at short intervals.

At first she assumed the symptoms might be related to physical changes that may occur after pregnancy. Martin had recently had two children and thought her body was adapting to the new situation.

But then things started to get heated. When he used the toilet, he began to notice something unusual: what he described as a tissue-like material.

“It’s something I can’t really explain, but it looked like internal tissue and mucosa,” he recalls exclusively to PEOPLE. “It was weird and I was taking pictures to document it and showed it to my husband.”

After a week or two the bleeding started and got worse.

The symptoms persisted, as well as stomach pain and irregular bowel habits. He also noticed another worrying sign: He often felt the urgent need to use the toilet, but “nothing came out except blood and clots.”

After nearly two months of worsening symptoms, Martin, now 30, finally made an appointment with his primary care doctor.

His doctor performed blood tests and a rectal exam. Because Martin wasn’t anemic (meaning he wasn’t losing dangerous amounts of blood) he was told the bleeding could be from something much less serious, like an internal hemorrhoid or fissure.

He was referred for sigmoidoscopy but the earliest possible appointment was almost two months away.

Then the pain became unbearable.

“The next week my stomach pain became extreme, making me cry, and my pain tolerance was pretty high,” Martin recalls.

Her husband became concerned and took her to the emergency room. However, doctors did another blood test and determined that he was not anemic. According to Martin, the emergency room doctor told her she would just have to wait for her scheduled procedure.

“I remember the emergency room doctor being extremely dismissive,” he says. “I showed him pictures of the giant blood clots I had that day and he said: Yeah, it could just be an internal hemorrhoid, you’re not anemic so it’s nothing life-threatening.”

“In retrospect, I now know I should have asked him for a CT scan because the tumor would have been caught on a simple scan,” he says.

But after leaving the emergency room, Martin decided to take matters into his own hands.

He called the gastroenterology department himself and explained his symptoms in detail. After hearing her experience, the staff told her she needed to be seen immediately and scheduled a full colonoscopy for the following week.

This procedure would eventually provide the answers he was looking for.

A colonoscopy revealed devastating news: Martin had colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer begins with the growth of cells in the rectum, with symptoms that may include changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain and rectal bleeding, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“The day my husband brought me to the emergency room was the day I realized something was wrong,” she says. “We looked up my symptoms online and everything came up with ‘colon cancer’ or ‘bowel cancer’ and we told each other that was never possible. I’m only 28 and healthy.”

Doctors diagnosed Martin with stage 2 colorectal cancer with a T3 tumor; This meant that the cancer had started to grow through the rectal wall but had not yet spread to nearby lymph nodes.

The treatment plan was aggressive.

Martin underwent 25 rounds of pelvic radiation along with chemotherapy pills taken twice a day. After completing radiation, he underwent four and a half months of intravenous chemotherapy using a drug called FOLFOX.

The treatment was physically exhausting, but Martin says she tried to maintain as much normalcy as possible for her young daughters, who were just 1 and 3 years old at the time.

“The days of chemotherapy were very tough on my body,” she says. “I was very sick, but I took a week off between vaccinations so I could recover and continue my normal life.”

When the scans were done at the end of the treatment, the doctors gave promising news: The tumor had completely dissolved.

Martin was declared NED; This means “no evidence of disease”.

Because the cancer appeared to be gone, he did not need surgery and instead went on a “watch-and-wait” plan that included MRIs, CT scans, and sigmoidoscopy every three months to monitor for recurrence.

But the relief was short-lived.

During the first follow-up scans in March 2025, doctors noticed something alarming: a small 7-millimeter nodule in his left lung. Her oncologist initially recommended monitoring.

Still uneasy, Martin pushed for another scan the following month; the nodule had grown.

Further tests confirmed his fears. The cancer had spread to his lungs, officially diagnosing him with stage 4 colorectal cancer with lung metastases.

His doctors recommended surgery to remove the affected part of his lung. However, imaging performed while preparing for this procedure revealed a second tumor in the opposite lung.

Martin ultimately underwent two lung resection surgeries just three weeks apart.

Despite the frightening diagnosis, she says the experience changed her perspective in unexpected ways.

“This diagnosis has truly impacted every aspect of my life in the most incredibly positive way that something this terrible can do,” she says.

She owes much of this strength to the support system around her, especially her husband.

“My husband is definitely my number one person,” Martin says. “Throughout all my treatments and surgeries, he comes forward without question and takes care of everything and everyone.”

Today, Martin shares his journey online to raise awareness about colorectal cancer, especially in young adults.

Her videos quickly gained traction, and she says she received hundreds of messages from people who noticed the same symptoms themselves.

“I had absolutely no idea about colorectal cancer before I was diagnosed,” he says. “It was recently published that colorectal cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in people under the age of 50.”

“I’ve received hundreds of messages online from others saying my videos pushed them to see their doctor,” he adds.

Now, she hopes her story encourages others to listen to their own bodies and advocate for answers.

“My hope is that more young people will recognize the symptoms in their own bodies and advocate for proper screening before the disease progresses,” she says.

Currently, Martin is under active monitoring. Although recent scans revealed a few suspicious findings, he recently received encouraging news: A negative Signatera blood test indicates he is not currently at risk of recurrence.

“My family and I continue life with a renewed spirit,” he says.

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Despite everything, Martin says his faith remains his greatest source of hope.

“Jesus is what gives me hope,” he says. “When I struggle with anxiety, anxiety, and fear, I turn to my Bible and pray and I am gifted with peace and a healthy mind.”

And above all, he hopes readers take a message from his story.

“Please be in tune with your body and be aware of things that seem wrong,” she says. “Ask doctors questions and try to get the answers yourself because you are your best advocate.”

Read the original article People