‘Very Healthy and Fit' Mom, 39, Ignored Multiple Bowel Cancer Symptoms For Months
In May 2023, Maeyke was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer
She shared that she ignored her symptoms of night sweats and abdominal pain for monthsKrystal Maeyke believed the sharp stabbing pains in her stomach were a food allergy.
Maeyke, 39, tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensations in her lower abdomen for three months until the pain became unbearable.
The mom of one has been documenting her battle with cancer on her TikTok account. In a video, she describes her diagnosis and shares that "three months" before she got the news, "I was having sharp stabbing pains, very tired, unexplained night sweats, loss of appetite, irregular bowel movements, and feeling like s---."
She thought she was just "overworked, and being a busy mum." She said that she was "very healthy and fit."
After her symptoms became unbearable, she was airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctors Service to the nearest hospital, which was 280 miles away.
At Alice Springs Hospital, she was given a series of tests. On May 30, 2023, Krystal Maeyke was diagnosed with metastatic bowel cancer.
In the same video, Maeyke shared, "I underwent a series of tests. That's when I knew it was something serious. I was woken up later that night by a doctor whose words I will never forget."
" 'Krystal, I've got bad news…. You have cancer,' " she recalled the doctor telling her. "The weight of those words, accompanied by my question of 'How do you know?' and the doctor's response, 'It's everywhere,' shook me to my core."
According to the Cleveland Clinic, stage 4 is characterized by the cancer having spread to other "distant" parts of the body than where it originated. In this stage, it is considered metastatic or advanced cancer.
Maeyke also said that before her diagnosis, she had months of night sweats, which she "ignored."
"I was experiencing persistent night sweats a few months before I was diagnosed. I would wake up during the night drenched in sweat, enough so I had to change clothes and sheets." She described that "some nights it would happen a few times."
"It was summertime, and I slept with the air [conditioner] on and a fan, so I just thought it was my air [conditioner] not keeping up with the summer heat. So I ignored this sign," the mom shared.
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Maeyke continues to share her ongoing battle against cancer on her TikTok account, sharing with almost 50,000 people the key signs of bowel cancer and the treatment that she is undergoing, including multiple rounds of chemotherapy.
Maeyke has been transparent in her struggle with cancer and candidly shared that one of the most complex parts is planning for the future of her son, Maison.
Maeyke set up a GoFundMe to develop a financial cushion for her family during her illness. In the post, she wrote, "The true weight of my struggle lies not in my own pain, but the potential loss for my 12-year-old son, Maison."
According to Cancer Research UK, some symptoms of bowel cancer can be bleeding from the rectum or blood in your poop, a change in bowel habits, a lump in your abdomen, tiredness and breathlessness. It can also feel like cramping pains in the abdomen, feeling bloated, constipation and being sick.
Read the original article on People
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Very Healthy and Fit' Mom, 39, Ignored Multiple Bowel Cancer Symptoms For Months
Krystal Maeyke has been documenting her battle with bowel cancer on TikTok In May 2023, Maeyke was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer She shared that she ignored her symptoms of night sweats and abdominal pain for monthsKrystal Maeyke believed the sharp stabbing pains in her stomach were a food allergy. Maeyke, 39, tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensations in her lower abdomen for three months until the pain became unbearable. The mom of one has been documenting her battle with cancer on her TikTok account. In a video, she describes her diagnosis and shares that "three months" before she got the news, "I was having sharp stabbing pains, very tired, unexplained night sweats, loss of appetite, irregular bowel movements, and feeling like s---." She thought she was just "overworked, and being a busy mum." She said that she was "very healthy and fit." After her symptoms became unbearable, she was airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctors Service to the nearest hospital, which was 280 miles away. At Alice Springs Hospital, she was given a series of tests. On May 30, 2023, Krystal Maeyke was diagnosed with metastatic bowel cancer. In the same video, Maeyke shared, "I underwent a series of tests. That's when I knew it was something serious. I was woken up later that night by a doctor whose words I will never forget." " 'Krystal, I've got bad news…. You have cancer,' " she recalled the doctor telling her. "The weight of those words, accompanied by my question of 'How do you know?' and the doctor's response, 'It's everywhere,' shook me to my core." According to the Cleveland Clinic, stage 4 is characterized by the cancer having spread to other "distant" parts of the body than where it originated. In this stage, it is considered metastatic or advanced cancer. Maeyke also said that before her diagnosis, she had months of night sweats, which she "ignored." "I was experiencing persistent night sweats a few months before I was diagnosed. I would wake up during the night drenched in sweat, enough so I had to change clothes and sheets." She described that "some nights it would happen a few times." "It was summertime, and I slept with the air [conditioner] on and a fan, so I just thought it was my air [conditioner] not keeping up with the summer heat. So I ignored this sign," the mom shared. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Maeyke continues to share her ongoing battle against cancer on her TikTok account, sharing with almost 50,000 people the key signs of bowel cancer and the treatment that she is undergoing, including multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Maeyke has been transparent in her struggle with cancer and candidly shared that one of the most complex parts is planning for the future of her son, Maison. Maeyke set up a GoFundMe to develop a financial cushion for her family during her illness. In the post, she wrote, "The true weight of my struggle lies not in my own pain, but the potential loss for my 12-year-old son, Maison." According to Cancer Research UK, some symptoms of bowel cancer can be bleeding from the rectum or blood in your poop, a change in bowel habits, a lump in your abdomen, tiredness and breathlessness. It can also feel like cramping pains in the abdomen, feeling bloated, constipation and being sick. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lopez: A candid take on mortality and the power of friendship
They gather several times a week in the parking lot of a Vons supermarket in Mar Vista, and no subject is off-limits. Not even the grim medical prognosis for 70-year-old David Mays, one of the founding members of the coffee klatch. 'It's one of our major topics of conversation,' said Paul Morgan, 45, a klatch regular. Mays is a cancer survivor with a full package of maladies, including diabetes, a faltering heart and failing kidneys. But since I met him almost two years ago, he has told me repeatedly that he doesn't want dialysis treatment, even though it might extend his life. 'I get it, because it's a lot of hours out of your day,' said Morgan, a schoolteacher who lives nearby. 'People think you go in for dialysis for 15 minutes before you go straight to work. But really, it's a part-time job.' His treatment would require that he visit a dialysis center three times a week, for four hours each time, Mays said. 'For the rest of my life.' 'I don't think I could do it,' said klatcher Kit Bradley, 70, who lives in a van near the supermarket with his dog, Lea. I met Mays in October 2023, when he was living in his Chevy Malibu in a downtown garage that was part of the Safe Parking L.A. program. Mays later moved into an apartment in East Hollywood and still lives there, but his health has continued to deteriorate. 'He is Stage 5,' said Dr. Thet Thet Aung, Mays' nephrologist at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles. For such patients, Aung said, death can be imminent. She told me she's had many conversations with Mays about his treatment options, including dialysis in a clinic or self-administered at home. But not everyone does well on dialysis, she added, and when a patient makes an informed choice, 'we respect their wishes.' Mays has a refreshingly healthy attitude about mortality. Multibillion-dollar industries cater to those who want to look younger and live longer, and about 25% of Medicare's massive outlay is spent on patients in the last year of life, many of whom choose life-extending medical procedures. Mays, in the time I've known him, has been realistic rather than fatalistic. He has told me he doesn't think bravery, faith or spirituality has anything to do with his desire to let nature take its course. Read more: Almost 70, unemployed, worried about his health and living in his car 'It transcends those things,' he said. He's at peace with his fate, he explained, because he's got friends, love and support. On a recent day at his apartment, I watched Mays load medication from more than 20 vials into a weekly pill organizer. 'I could almost do this in my sleep,' he said as he arranged meds that resembled miniature jelly beans. This one for his kidneys, that one for his heart, his blood pressure, and on and on. There were 18 pills in each compartment. And none of that will cure any of what ails him, he said. 'You just have to keep doing it, and doing it, just to stay at a sustained level,' he said. 'It's not like … I feel great because I took this stuff.' Two women in Mays' life are heartbroken about his condition but respectful of his refusal to try dialysis. 'I don't want him to suffer for the sake of placating other people,' said Mays' daughter Jennifer Nutt, 47, of Merced. Her parents divorced when she and her brother were young, and Nutt had no relationship with Mays until recently. She's had her own trials, Nutt said, including homelessness. Read more: The monthly tab for her in-home elder care: $18,000. She can cover it, but how many others can? Father and daughter began connecting in the fall of 2024. 'We spend hours every day talking. It's like a nonstop festival of catching up,' and they've discovered they have the same cheeky sense of humor and pragmatism, and similar traits and interests. 'We like big words and thick books,' Nutt said. The other woman is Helena Bake, of Perth, Australia, a registered nurse Mays affectionately refers to as "Precious." They met in 1985, when Mays was visiting London, and Bake, 18 at the time, was working in a restaurant he visited with friends. After Bake moved to Australia, Mays visited her many times and became close to her entire family. 'He was lovely,' said Bake, who is not surprised by Mays' attitude about his deteriorating health. 'He's always very positive and so pragmatic. He has this wonderful view of the world and the people in his life. It's such a gift that he has.' Mays, who gets by on Social Security payments, has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for his cremation and send his ashes to Bake, to be scattered in his favorite places in Australia. Lately, medical appointments with his several doctors, and the occasional ER visit, have gotten in the way of one of Mays' favorite activities — the gatherings in the Vons parking lot. Mays worked for many years in the Mar Vista area as a live-in elder care provider, and he'd bump into Bradley at a park, or Morgan in the strip mall that includes the grocery store. Several years ago, they made a habit of grabbing coffee around 7 a.m. and hanging out near Mays' car. Bradley's dog often hops into the vehicle, a Vons employee named Elvis comes out for a smoke break, and others come and go. 'I had a cousin who had diabetes, and he called my mom one day and said, 'I'm not doing it anymore,' ' Morgan was saying the other day. His mother wasn't supportive at first, he told the klatch, but she listened to her nephew's explanation and came around. 'Who could judge someone for the choices they make in that situation?' 'There's a waiting list for kidneys of two to eight years,' Mays said. 'Let's say [in] four or five years, there was a kidney available. Your body can reject it … and then you're back to the drawing board…. I told Precious about this like a year and a half ago … and she said, 'I have to hang up now because I have to process this.' And the next time I talked with her, she said, 'I get it.' ' Mays said he doesn't want to be 'a prisoner to a process, like a machine or something." "And you have to do this indefinitely. It's not like you're on it for two or three years…," he said. "It is. The. Rest. Of. Your. Life." 'I've seen people that were on dialysis,' said Bradley, a former musician. 'I think I'd rather be just, if I gotta go, I gotta go.' Morgan said his father, who died last year, had kidney problems in the end and resisted extreme measures to extend his life. 'It's not like he was at all suicidal, just like David's not,' Morgan said. 'The thing about David is, he's always been so resolute about it. We've never had a discussion where I felt like we could waver him, or like he was on the fence.' When he first resisted dialysis, Mays said, doctors set him up in a room with a video that explained the process. 'I watched the whole thing, and that was the clincher,' Mays said. 'By the time I got through looking at that, I'm just going, 'Oh HELL no.'' It's not that he wants to die, Mays said. It's that he wants to live on his terms. Read more: If people taking care of our elders get deported, will anyone take their place? 'The irony of the whole thing is, it's all the people that I have around me — they're the reason I'm willing to go like this. What I get from them in the way of being … uplifted and loved, well, when you have all that, you can deal with anything." He has his klatch buddies, he has Precious, he has his daughter in his life again. 'With people around that give a damn about you, care about you, you can deal … with death, you can deal with dying.... And I told my doctors I would rather live a shorter period of time, but with what I feel to be some decent quality of life, than live a longer period of time and be miserable. And I would be miserable on dialysis,' Mays said. 'Plus, I'm 70. It ain't like I'm 30 and there's so much life to live. I am the age that I am, and I would like to go further, sure, but it has to close out soon. And I'm fine with that, because I have lived.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Newsweek
17 hours ago
- Newsweek
Rescue Dog Struggling To Adjust to New Home Breaks Hearts
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. In a viral TikTok video, a formerly neglected pup struggles to adjust to his new loving home, and internet users can't cope with the heartbreaking footage. The post shared in June under the username @barkandmeoww, shows the 3-year-old pup sitting by the door, looking confused as he is not used to be inside with people giving him love. In a previous post, his owner said that, at his old house, Gizmo was left alone outside for most of his day, and so now he doesn't know what to do indoors. "Poor Gizmo … He is still adjusting to his new home. Sometimes I find him just sitting here," reads layover text in the clip. "He was an outside dog. maybe that's why he sits by the door," the poster added in the caption. While dogs do need time outdoors, especially during their daily walks, leaving them out more than necessary can be detrimental to their health. Vetster says that outdoors dogs are exposed to elements, diseases, pests, and lots of other hazards that can potentially be very dangerous. First of all, when coming into contact with wildlife, such dogs can catch diseases such as leptospirosis and rabies. They can also become infested with fleas, ticks, and tapeworm outside. Extreme temperatures can cause hypothermia and frostbite, paw burns and heat stroke. In the summer, outdoors dogs also run the risk of dehydration. The outdoors is also full of plants that can be highly toxic, and even fatal to our pups. If you suspect that your pup has ingested a toxic plant, call ASPCA Poison Control on (888) 426-4435. Stock image: A small-sized dog stretches indoors near a couch. Stock image: A small-sized dog stretches indoors near a couch. getty images The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 146,800 views and more than 30,900 likes on the platform. One user, Chan Chan, commented: "He'll adjust. I recall when I got my first dog Flash at four-years-old. He sat just like this for a few days. He finally started walking around the house. He was my best friend for 15 years. I miss him so much. Please give your baby time to adjust. He's cute." posted: "Engagement and enrichment—take him on a tour everyday of the house and the grounds. Lead him to things to sniff. Do it regularly. He needs to mentally map his (huge) new landscape and feel safe doing it." PattyGrza725 wrote: "Oh sweet baby still can't believe it's really happening to him … Please give him time, don't give up on him." Newsweek reached out to @barkandmeoww for comment via TikTok comments. We could not verify the details of the case. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
