What goes through your mind when a doctor reveals to you that you’ve got stage 4 cancer?<\/p>\n
Jordan Brunoli’s initial reaction, he admits, was awful.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I get some time off work,'” the Bugs bassist tells triple j hack in his first interview since his diagnosis earlier this year.<\/p>\n
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Jordan Brunoli has had 50 per cent of his bowel removed and now has a permanent stoma.\u00a0 (triple j: Brandon Lung)<\/p>\n
“I was just so burnt out from general life stuff and immediately switched to downplaying it in my mind.<\/p>\n
“But five seconds after that I was like, ‘that’s ridiculous, I’m too young.'”<\/p>\n
Now 30, Jordan is one part of the Bugs trio that also includes singer Connor Brooker and drummer Brock Weston.<\/p>\n
The band’s announcement of Jordan’s terminal diagnosis earlier this year sent shock waves through the Australian music community.<\/p>\n
“I actually wasn’t going to tell anyone except for maybe a couple of close friends,” he admits.<\/p>\n
“But I think I was convinced by Brock and Con to make it public.”<\/p>\n
A sold-out fundraising concert in Jordan’s honour is being held in Brisbane this weekend.<\/p>\n
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Jordan Brunoli with his partner George and his band mate Brock.\u00a0 (triple j: Brandon Lung)<\/p>\n
‘You’re being pushy’<\/p>\n
While the cancer came as a surprise to Jordan, he had known something was wrong for months.<\/p>\n
“There was blood in my stool occasionally \u2026 lethargy and general tiredness,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I was getting a lot of hectic stomach pain.”<\/p>\n
The pain was so bad that Jordan was taking time off work.<\/p>\n
He remembers keeling over in agony and being unable to move for hours.<\/p>\n
“At that point, I couldn’t eat. I was eating once or twice a week.”Loading…<\/p>\n
But despite his alarming symptoms, blood tests came back clear and Jordan’s doctor insisted it was nothing serious.<\/p>\n
“It’s a virus, it’s a virus. Don’t worry, it’ll go away in a couple of weeks,” he recalls his doctor told him.<\/p>\n
“Advocating for yourself in a doctor’s office is difficult as a young person.”<\/p>\n
After several visits, Jordan had had enough. He remembers feeling “panicked” that he wasn’t being listened to.<\/p>\n
“He was a bit dismissive when I asked for things \u2026 telling me I was being pushy.<\/p>\n
“I thought, ‘screw this, like I genuinely feel f***ed’, and I knew there was something wrong with me.”<\/p>\n
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Jordan Brunoli in hospital following bowel cancer surgery.\u00a0 (GoFundMe: Brock Weston and Connor Brooker\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Jordan got a second opinion from another doctor, and before long, had his cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n
He says he doesn’t hold any ill will towards that first doctor, but wonders what might have been different if he had been listened to earlier.<\/p>\n
He is pleading with young Australians to take their health seriously.<\/p>\n
“Don’t be tough, you’re not impressing anyone.<\/p>\n
“If I’d seen a doctor previously, maybe the outcome would be different.<\/p>\n
“Advocate for yourself with the doctor and if they don’t give you what you want, go see a new doctor.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bugs band member Jordan Brunoli and his dog. (triple j: Brandon Lung)<\/p>\n
The new normal<\/p>\n
Of concern, Jordan’s experience is becoming more common among young Australians.<\/p>\n