Rhian Butlin, a 32-year-old from Britain, shared her tough story about going through a surgery she didn’t really need because doctors said she had ovarian cancer. Back in September 2024, she felt terrible pain in her belly and rushed to the doctor. After a scan, the doctors told her she had cancer.
Just two months later, Rhian ended up in the hospital again because her belly was swollen and looked like she was “nine months pregnant.” A second scan showed she had a big 25cm tumor on one of her ovaries, which needed to be removed. In December, she had a full hysterectomy, which means doctors took out her uterus and other parts of her body, like her appendix and some bowel lining.
Her recovery was very hard. Rhian, who is also a mother of two, had a lot of fluid build-up and even got sepsis, a serious infection. At one point, doctors even put her in a medically induced coma to help her. Her sister, Lindsey Rice, shared their fear in a GoFundMe post, saying they thought Rhian might not survive the night. Luckily, she made it through and went home to recover.
The GoFundMe raised more than £3,500 (over $4,600) to help with bills. But then some good news came. A second biopsy showed Rhian had endometriosis, a disease that can look like cancer on scans. Her sister wrote how happy they were, thinking the nightmare was over. However, just a day later came more bad news.
Doctors apologized to the family, explaining they made a mistake. They clarified that Rhian actually did have cancer, but it was in her appendix, which is a very rare type. Sadly, it had already spread to her pelvis and lymph nodes, making it stage 4 and “incurable.”
Rhian shared her feeling with the Daily Mail, saying she feels emotionally drained and scared. She feels like she didn’t need to have her ovary and uterus removed because she didn’t have ovarian or bowel cancer. She feels sad that it took so long for the doctors to find the cancer in her appendix.
Now, she is undergoing strong chemotherapy treatments and told the outlet, “It’s been tough. If they figured it out sooner, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this.”
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