Mortified gran who had to shoo ‘pestering pooch’ Brian credits his bum sniffing with saving her life
A GRAN was mortified at having to shoo her dog Brian as he constantly sniffed her bum.
But she now says the overly inquisitive pooch ‘saved her life’ by helping discover she had a rare type of cancer.
Lindsey Thwaites blamed the discomfort in her derriere on painful piles, as she’d been plagued with haemorrhoids since having her eldest son 32 years ago.
But in May this year, she started to experience soreness and some bleeding.
One night in the middle of May, Lindsey nipped to the loo and was horrified to discover she was covered in blood that had soaked through her underwear and pyjamas.
Shrugging it off as a potential period, the 51-year-old cleaned herself up, changed her nightwear and climbed back into bed.
But ever since that happened, family dog Brian wouldn’t leave Lindsey alone and constantly sniffed her bottom, something that continued when she discover a marble-sized lump in her genitals.
The mortified housewife would repeatedly shoo the two-and-a-half-year-old border collie away, but credits the persistent pooch’s mithering with saving her life.
The gran-of-one claims his constant attention prompted her to book a GP appointment and finally get a diagnosis of anal cancer – the same condition Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett died of.
Lindsey, who is married to 69-year-old Dave Thwaites, said she ‘fell to bits’ when go the devastating diagnosis.
She’s now sharing her ordeal in order to encourage people to overcome embarrassment and get anything unusual checked out.
The first thing that goes through your head is that you’re going to die
Lindsey, from Chapeltown, South Yorkshire, said: “Brian mithering me saved my life, he pushed me to go to my GP.
“Brian only comes for a love when he wants a love, but he would just not leave me alone.
“He kept sniffing my bum all the time and he followed me round, I’d be like ‘Brian stop it’.”
Even then, Lindsey had an intuition that something might be terribly wrong.
“I said to my husband ‘he’s scaring me because I know dogs can smell cancer’.
“When I went to gynaecology in June, as soon as she went to examine me, she said ‘they’ve sent you to the wrong place’.
“She said ‘this lump doesn’t come from front to back, it goes from back to front’.
“I said ‘is it cancer?’ and I just fell to bits because the first thing that goes through your head is that you’re going to die.”
The mum-of-two said she suffered from piles on and off over the years but when painful or itchy she would treat them with cream before they went away again and thought little of them.
I thought ‘right I’m going to fight it, and I’m going to beat it
However the incident in May, plus Brian’s constant attention, prompted Lindsey to get it checked out – ultimately leading to her stage three diagnosis.
Lindsey said: “I’ve always suffered with piles since I had my first son 32 years ago.
“They’d come and go, sometimes they’d be a little bit sore, other times I wouldn’t know I’d got them.
“If they were a bit painful or itchy I’d use some cream, other times I would leave them and they would just go.
“But these weren’t going, they were getting worse and feeling bigger and bigger.
“One that I thought was a pile was a tumour.
“At colo-rectal the doctor said it was anal cancer that had gone into my vaginal wall, the muscles in my vagina and lymph nodes in my groin.
“I came home and was in a bit of a mess. That day I kept crying but when I went to bed that night I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long time.
“I don’t know if it was because of the relief I knew what it was.
“I got up the next morning and
thought ‘right I’m going to fight it, and I’m going to beat it.”
Since her diagnosis back in June Lindsey now faces gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy at The Jessop Hospital in Sheffield, West Yorkshire, starting this month.
Lindsey said: “This type of cancer is so painful and uncomfortable.
“It’s like shoving a grapefruit half-way up your bum and leaving the rest of it out.
“Sitting down is so painful, I have to lean and sit on my hip. I can’t lie on my back in bed because it hurts.
“I’ve had to have a stoma bag put on because I can’t go to the toilet. The tumour is that big it just blocks everything.
“I’m struggling to walk now because it’s painful, but I won’t let it get me down.”
Her pestering pooch has been a great help to the gran in these trying times.
“Brian’s been amazing, he comes for cuddles all the time,” Lindsey said.
“He’s so gentle with me, he’ll lay on the back of the settee and lay his head on my shoulder as if to say ‘I’m looking after you’.
“He’s been my therapy dog. He’s my little superhero.”
Lindsey is sharing her diagnosis to encourage people to overcome embarrassment and get anything unusual checked out by a doctor.
Lindsey said: “Don’t be embarrassed, the doctors have seen it all before.
“If you find a lump, something doesn’t feel right or you’re bleeding – go to the doctors and let them examine you.
“So many people said they didn’t know you could get cancer there.”
Symptoms of anal cancer
Anal cancer is a rare type of cancer that affects your bottom, where your bowel connects to the outside of the body.
It can start in any part of the anus and how serious it is will depend on where it starts, how big it is, if it spreads and your general health.
Symptoms of anal cancer can include:
- bleeding from the bottom
- itching and pain around the anus
- small lumps around and inside the bottom
- a discharge of mucus from the bottom
- having problems controlling when you poo (bowel incontinence)
- needing to poo often with looser, runnier poos
Anal cancer may have no symptoms at all, or they might be hard to spot. Symptoms are often similar to haemorrhoids and anal fissures, which are common and less serious conditions.
It’s important to get any symptoms of anal cancer checked as soon as possible. Finding it early can make it more treatable.
Source: NHS