Even with her four-year-old daughter in tow, Perth mum Karen Windsor decided she needed to find some time in her busy schedule to focus on her fitness.
After starting pilates, yoga, kick-boxing and even 10-minute home workouts, when Karen’s back started hurting, she called it quits on her new exercise regimen.
As the pain worsened, her doctor gave her anti-inflammatory medication and Karen also started taking sleeping pills.
Catch up on the news with the 7NEWS app: Download it today 
Months and thousands of dollars spent on alternative therapies later, Karen discovered that she had a 5 cm tumor that was wrapping around her spine.
“(Doctors) thought it could have been growing for 10 to 15 years,” Karen tells 7Life.
“I’ve always had some kind of back pain for as long as I can remember.
“But this, just getting bigger, was putting pressure on critical nerves … I needed surgery.”
Karen began to suspect that her lower back and hip pain was much more than a simple exercise injury when a five-hour road trip left her in agony.
The then 35-year-old had embarked on a new health and fitness regime in 2022, but soon recurring back and hip pain began to interfere with her daily activities.
When the pain first appeared, she assumed she had simply strained the area during exercise, so she applied an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory cream.
But as the pain persisted – and spread to her hips and muscles – she went to her GP.
“The pain came really randomly,” says Karen.
“I don’t remember hurting it during a practice, but I just thought I had to have it.
“But after a week, it just wasn’t getting any better.”
Her GP gave her anti-inflammatory medication, but the pain only got worse and Karen started taking sleeping pills to help her get through the night.
Karen then jumped into the passenger seat of a car for a five-hour road trip.
“It was excruciating,” Karen recalls.
“Every bump in the road, I screamed.”
Now thinking her pain was more than a training injury, Karen went back to her GP who referred her to a physiotherapist.
But after 10 sessions of physiotherapy followed by acupuncture, chiropractor and massage visits, Karen was still in agony.
Her pain flared up especially when she was sitting, so she started using a standing desk at work and only got in the car when absolutely necessary.
Then the pain started creeping up her left leg and a distraught Karen eventually went back to her GP.
Four weeks, two MRIs and a CT scan on her hip and back later, her doctor called Karen.
“They found a 5cm lesion in the spine,” says Karen.
“I finally had my answer, it was a moment of relief, but at the same time…”
After the doctor delivered the news, Karen drove to her mom’s house to pick up her daughter.
There, she says, she burst into tears.
“Just saying it out loud to someone was overwhelming,” she says.
Specialist doctors immediately scheduled an operation to remove the tumor.
While they suspected the growth was benign, if left untreated it would continue to grow along Karen’s spine – putting pressure on her nerves and causing constant pain.
“I was scared because of the severity of the surgery,” Karen says, adding that as the mass grew along the outside of her spine, doctors also had to go inside her spinal cavity to check that the tumor had not entered there.
“But it had to be done.”
After surgeons successfully removed the tumor, Karen remembers opening her eyes in the recovery ward – pain-free for the first time in years.
“The surgery went exactly to plan and the tumor was sent for testing and it was benign,” Karen says with a smile, adding that she is now looking forward to living a pain-free life with her family.
“If you ever have something that reoccurs, make sure it’s investigated,” she says in a warning to other people experiencing pain.
“Don’t stop until you have your answer.”