2. Nausea and Vomiting: When Your Stomach Rebels
Nausea and vomiting are commonly associated with conditions like food poisoning, gastroenteritis, or even morning sickness in pregnancy. However, these symptoms may also surface in stage 2 colorectal cancer and play a crucial role in identifying the disease.
Imagine the tumor as a foreign element, a disruptor that throws your digestive system out of sync. While the stomach and colon are separate organs, they are part of the same digestive continuum. A tumor can disturb this delicate balance, affecting stomach function and leading to nausea.
It gets more intriguing when you consider how the body tries to “reject” or deal with this abnormality. Vomiting is a primal defense mechanism, an instinctive bodily response to expel what it perceives as harmful. Yet, in this scenario, it’s like a confused alarm system, triggering when the actual problem lies elsewhere.
This symptom is also an emotional rollercoaster. Frequent nausea and vomiting can significantly impact your quality of life, from affecting your appetite to generating anxiety about leaving your home. It paints a vivid picture of how a localized issue within your colon or rectum can produce far-reaching effects that you can neither see nor predict. (2)
