'I was told I was a hypochondriac. 21 doctors later, the truth almost killed me.'

When Jodie Guerrero felt a pain in her right shoulder, she brushed it off. Maybe she'd strained something carrying her toddler, or it could've been down to the stiff window she'd pushed open the day before. 

The ache was intense, but like most busy mums juggling a full-time job and two small kids, she didn't have time to dwell on it. 

When the pain mysteriously disappeared a month later, she chalked it up to a minor muscle issue and moved on.

Watch: Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Day in the Life. Article continues after the video.

But the reprieve didn't last. A creeping fatigue settled in. And no matter how early she went to bed or how many cups of coffee she drank at work, she couldn't stay awake. 

"Fatigue is a tired feeling that never seems to go away," Jodie said.

Then she felt the lump. She was weaning her youngest daughter when she noticed it, deep in the tissue between her right breast and underarm. 

Terrified, she rang a breast cancer hotline who urged her to see a GP immediately. That doctor assured her it was just an inflamed lymph node from an infection. Jodie was relieved, but the lump didn't go away.

And before long, new symptoms popped up. Night sweats drenched her sheets, infections came one after the other and her lower right back began to throb relentlessly. The pain ran down her leg to her foot. Even sitting became a challenge. 

"I could only sit on one side of my buttocks," she recalled. 

Eventually, Jodie decided she needed a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. 

"Every doctor I went to had a different thing to say," Jodie said. "Not one figured out what my symptoms meant." 

In the space of 11 months, Jodie saw seven different doctors over 21 separate appointments. 

Some dismissed her as overworked. Others focused on single symptoms in isolation. A few prescribed antibiotics for infections they believed she'd caught from her kids or coworkers.

Then came the itching. And the unbearable vaginal thrush that had her begging her boss to leave work early just to find relief. 

"I knew I was in trouble."

So, Jodie went to see the doctor again. But again, her symptoms were dismissed.

"After seeing her, I realised I was in trouble. No one was helping me and no one believed me," she said.

Eventually, she gave up, and stopped going to doctors altogether.

Desperate for a break, when the opportunity to attend a church camp came up, Jodie decided to go. But things only got worse. 

"On the Saturday night, I woke up at about 3am and something in my lower right back had changed. My leg was numb in places, and now I had nerve pain shooting down my leg. I was scared, really scared," she said. 

Her fellow campers recommended a chiropractor and naturopath, so, with nothing to lose, Jodie decided to give it a go. 

Jodie bought hundreds of dollars' worth of supplements and powders from the naturopath. The chiropractor told her it was all spine-related. She tried to believe them.

But by the end of September 2006, something else had changed. Jodie realised she couldn't feel herself urinate. "That was the final straw. I knew I was in trouble," she said.

Jodie and her husband went to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. This time, Jodie was sent for a CT scan. When the doctor returned with the results, his face was pale.

"Has anyone in your family had cancer before?" he asked. It was the first time anyone had even suggested it.

That night, a young female doctor approached her bedside. "We have found some unknown lesions or tumours in your body that we think might be malignant cancer," she said.

Within days, Jodie was diagnosed with Stage 4 Follicular B-cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The cancer had infiltrated her bones, nerves, and muscles. The tumour in her shoulder that first appeared nearly a year before had been cancer all along.

The delay in diagnosis had devastating consequences. Jodie would go on to receive 94 rounds of treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant. She developed nerve damage, drop foot, and lymphoedema. She would later be diagnosed with a second cancer.

"My staging was Stage 4, the last stage. The delay pushed me there. If it had been caught earlier, I might have needed far less treatment. I might not have needed the transplant. I might not have permanent nerve damage," Jodie said.

Jodie's story is not uncommon, particularly for women. "Women are often dismissed. We're told we're anxious, overreacting, hormonal. But I knew my body. I was dying, and no one would listen," said Jodie.

Research suggests the same. Studies show that women are more likely than men to have their symptoms minimised or misdiagnosed, especially when it comes to pain or fatigue.

Women are less likely than men to receive pain medication in emergency departments and wait longer to get it. Conditions like autoimmune disorders, endometriosis, and even heart disease are more often wrongly attributed to stress or anxiety in female patients.

This bias — sometimes unconscious — has real consequences. Delayed or incorrect diagnoses can lead to more aggressive treatment later, worse outcomes, and, as in Jodie's case, lasting damage. It's a systemic issue that many women face: feeling they have to prove their suffering before they are believed.

As a result of her experience, Jodie has become an advocate for patient safety. She suggests simple reforms — mandatory closing questions at every GP visit such as: 'Are you happy with my opinion?' and 'Would you like further testing? ' — to prevent patients from slipping through the cracks.

"Don't let anyone tell you 'nothing's wrong' when you know it is. You're the expert on your own body," she said. 

"That doctor at the RBWH saved my life. He listened. He gave me another shot. I wish more had done the same."

For more information or to reach out to Jodie, visit www.jodiesjourney.com

Feature image: Supplied.