A mother has described how she thought her ‘jelly belly’ was down to postpartum weight gain - until she started experiencing excruciating pain that left her bedridden. Little did Jass Green know what she was experiencing was far more sinister than recovery from childbirth.
Just a few days before Christmas in 2020, Jass then 37, found herself unable to get off the sofa as she was struck with agonising tummy pain. It was the height of Covid at the time, and Jass admits she was “terrified to go to the hospital.”
“I was in so much pain. My husband kept telling me "I think it’s your appendix, you need to go to hospital,” but I just brushed him off, I thought it was just my tummy,” she said.
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Jass, who lives in Flixton, Trafford, had also noticed a bit of weight gain and changes in her bowel movements. She said: “I’d not long had a baby and we were stuck inside because of lockdown, so I honestly just thought it was baby weight. I noticed an overhang on my tummy and I said to my husband "I have never in my life had an overhang in my tummy,” and exercise and eating healthy didn’t get rid of it.”
Jass’ husband Chris warned her that toilet changes can be a big indication that something is not right, and as the pain persisted she went to a walk-in clinic where she was told she had gastroenteritis.
Still suffering from agonising tummy pains, she went to Wythenshawe Hospital where she was given “quite strong painkillers” and told that “it could be something to do with her ovaries.” While this eased the pain slightly, in April 2021, the piercing pain returned and Jass was determined to get to the bottom of it.
“Something was spotted when I underwent an ultrasound. I was just put on a cancer pathway and it was just a really really long waitlist during Covid, so I ended up having to pay for a scan,” she said.
Heading to The Spire hospital, it was initially thought that Jass had suspected appendicitis before she was informed about a rare cancer called Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP). After running some tests, an expert PMP team at The Christie in Manchester diagnosed Jass with cancer.
“I was in complete denial when I was told I had cancer. After they confirmed I had PMP, I was pretty much given about four weeks.
“I’m one in a million people who have it in the UK. There are only two places in the UK that you can get it treated, one being The Christie.
“The support for my rare cancer was very, very minimal, and everything sounded quite scary. There wasn’t really anyone I could ring or talk to,” she said.
PMP usually begins in your appendix as a small growth which eventually spreads through the wall of your appendix or wherever else it starts. It then spreads cancerous cells to the abdominal cavity lining.
These cancerous cells produce mucus which collects in the abdomen as a jelly-like fluid called mucin which is why PMP is sometimes called ‘Jelly Belly’.
On July 7 2021, Jass underwent a “life changing” treatment using a surgical method called The Sugarbaker technique, which consisted of a 13 hour cytoreductive surgery followed by HIPEC (hot chemotherapy).
“Going into surgery, you don’t actually know what you’re going to come out with because the surgery is so extensive. I had my ovaries, fallopian tubes, gallbladder, a lot of my liver, and my omentum removed, my diaphragm was cleaned - anything the mucin was on really.
“My surgery was like 12-13 hours, and once all the mucin was moved, they put tubes in the slits in my abdomen, they then pumped my tummy with this hot chemotherapy for about 40 minutes to an hour. I was then stitched up and woke up in intensive care.
“I couldn’t do anything when I woke up, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. It was a long recovery and I got a lot of PTSD from being in intensive care. I was allowed no visitors, couldn’t see my kids - I had no one at all for about two weeks.
“Then after surgery, I had to wait a long time for my histology results to return which came back as showing some high grade cells, which meant I needed to undergo chemotherapy,” she said.
The mum-of-two struggled to cope with what she had gone through, saying it was only when she was released from hospital, that she began processing the ordeal. She turned to cancer charity Maggie’s Manchester, in the grounds of The Christie, in search of support and therapy.
She said: “When I was sent home after my stint in hospital, I went from doctors being around me all day speaking to me about surgery prep, and talking around me, to radio silence. I felt like I had nobody at all, and that's when I started to process what I actually went through.
“I turned to my husband and said I need to go to Maggie’s, I need to speak to someone because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. It was the first time I talked about the nightmares I was experiencing and how medication was affecting me.”
Taking part in Maggie’s huge fashion fundraiser on November 17, Maggie’s on the Runway, Jass has attributed the success of her recovery and positive mindset to the help she received from the charity as well as the people she met on the way.
“It’s an incredible place and I don’t actually know how my recovery would’ve been without Maggie’s. I think I would’ve struggled massively.
“Things are looking good for me now, I finished my chemotherapy. I started going to the gym and am now running a personal 5k which is mental for me because I couldn't even walk after surgery!
“I don’t know what the future holds, I’m okay for now, no one can ever say to me it’s not gonna come back so I’ve just got to live to the max while I can and look after myself and my family.”
