After only one symptom, a guy was shocked to learn that he had cancer and that it was spreading to other organs.

A video of 48-year-old Springfield, Missouri resident Shawn Michael talking candidly about his experience with cancer has gone popular on social media.

Last month, he revealed his diagnosis on The Patient Story’s YouTube channel, and the video has received nearly 100,000 views to date.

Michael was finally told by doctors that his colorectal cancer had progressed to stage four and had spread to several of his other organs.

Because of his age and overall condition, he and his physicians are still hopeful that he will overcome his cancer diagnosis.

However, as Michael had previously only been coping with one somewhat typical symptom, the diagnosis came as a huge surprise to him and his family.

The 48-year-old thought he was constipated after having some bowel problems in October of last year, but he hadn’t yet discovered a way to properly relieve himself.

When over-the-counter treatments failed to help, he went to an urgent care facility where he was given what he called “napalm for your intestines.”

His symptoms did subside as a result, although Michael clarified that he still felt uneasy.

Opening up about his story, he said, “Two days later I could still physically feel something inside of me. It hurt so bad.”

When he returned to urgent care, a CT scan showed a mass in his colon, and he was told that surgery was required right away to remove the obstruction. Although there had been some encouraging news, doctors also discovered other alarming tumors.

A significant portion of his colon was removed during the procedure, and on his omentum—a thick layer of fatty tissue that envelops the colon—they discovered multiple enormous lesions that resembled cancer.

Michael added, “[The surgeon] explained that the obstruction that was in my colon at the time was so large he was absolutely shocked that it hadn’t ruptured yet.”

“That was actually kind of a lucky break that it had attached to that fatty tissue there.”

“That had been able to help slow down the progression to the other organs.”

Even though the first procedure was deemed successful and all of the cancer that the physicians could identify was removed, some still exists in his body.

Michael is still optimistic about his eventual recovery and is now scheduled to get chemotherapy for three months in an attempt to eradicate the remaining cancer.