Kate Hackett
Learning you have cancer is always an emotionally fraught time. Learning you have cancer after having to advocate for yourself for a proper diagnoses sounds nigh impossible emotionally.
That’s just what happened to TikToker @mandapaints and she shared her experience in a video that has since gone viral.
The viral TikTok starts with a clip from a year ago of her tearfully explaining that she just told the doctor she has pain while eating. The doctor evidently replied: “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
She says she made the appointment because she had severe pain and cramping for months.
After the old clip, she says:
“I took that video a year ago today, and in a month from now, it will be the anniversary of when they found my cancer.”
Amanda says that a single month after being dismissed by that doctor, a different doctor found out that Amanda had colon cancer, which was the root of the issues she was having. She was horrified to learn that her previous doctor had ignored “textbook colon cancer symptoms” solely because of her weight.
After the initial video clip, she says she did return to the office for an apology.
The video now has over 180,000 views and nearly 45,000 likes. It has clearly resonated with many people, particularly women, who are more likely to have symptoms dismissed than men.
She chatted with BuzzFeed about the incident. She is now in remission after chemo, but “[t]he residual anxiety, trauma, and grief have really been kicking my butt. I would probably say that it’s almost as bad as the chemo was on my body.”
She also shared that she had trouble even getting the appointment to begin with.
“I’ve always had GI issues, and they’ve always been ignored. I was getting really sick, dropping weight, not consuming any food, and I was trying to get my insurance to send me to a GI.” She was able to book an appointment after purposefully switching medical groups to see a specific gastroenterologist who was able to see her within the shortest amount of time. “I called [my insurance company] in a panic like, ‘I am so sick. This has been months of me being sick. Please get me a doctor as soon as possible,'” she explained.
Amanda said she tried repeatedly to figure out what was wrong with her, even having a dietician work out food triggers. She was desperate, she said. “I had already talked to a dietician who mapped out food for me, and had a whole list of foods that did and didn’t work for me.”
But even though Amanda wrote out all her pain symptoms and food, the gastroenterologist didn’t seem to care.
“I already kind of knew.” Amanda told BuzzFeed. “You already know when someone doesn’t really care about what you have to say.”
The doctor did not run any tests and interrupted her, she explained. He asked her about what food she ate and she said “nothing”, to which he responded “Maybe that’s a blessing.” Asked to clarify, he actually repeated it: “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
After the appointment, Amanda says she sat in the car and cried, then called her best friend. That friend encouraged Amanda to go back and complain.
“I knew that it was wrong, deep down inside me. There are only so many times that a doctor can tell you that it’s your fault that you’re sick, it’s your fault that you’re fat, or that you’re useless for being fat. There’s only so many times that you can hear that. I asked for the doctor, he owes me an apology.”
The return visit was also belittling. She says the doctor told her he was too “sensitive” and didn’t understand his “sense of humor”. That’s when Amanda filmed the first TikTok.
“Something inside of me was telling me that this was wrong and what he was doing was inappropriate, but I also felt like it was so common, and it was so difficult to pinpoint why.”
She found her new doctor, a woman, and the colonoscopy was ordered immediately. That colonoscopy showed a tumor and Amanda said, “I was like, ‘That makes sense.’ I was in so much pain for so long, being ignored.”
Why she posted her TikTok? Here’s what she said:
“Fatphobia in the medical industry literally kills. Diet culture in everyday life literally kills. We don’t discuss it enough…It’s been too many years of people not being heard, tested, or treated well because they are overweight.
“Society almost sees fat bodies as an inconvenience. I’m a normal-sized American. I teeter between a size 12–14. How did I, a barely above average-size woman almost die from fatphobia? It goes way further than BMI. It goes into society as a whole, and how we look at fat bodies, and how we deem them unworthy of things, including medical help. I’m fed up with it.”
“As somebody who struggled through cancer and came out the other end, and can say, ‘This struggle that I went through can make a difference,’ it helps. I want change to start with you and me, and then we can tackle the medical industry. But for now, these conversations are good to have.”
