Welcome dear readers.
I am now doing something that I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would do - starting a blog. Unfortunately it is regarding a fight against incurable cancer. I hope that anything that I write provides some comfort/interest/curiosity ? for you. To be honest I do not really know if I am doing this for others. I suspect that in actual fact I am going to be using this so that the incessant voice in my head can be silenced for just a little while.
So, where should I start ? I guess the nature of my disease up until now would be as good a place as any (BTW I am a 61 year old single male).
In March 2014 I visited the doctor as I had passed quite a lot of blood together with a nasty amount of mucus. I had previously been diagnosed with diverticulitis so I was worried but not overly so, even though I had been having persistent very mild abdominal pain for some time. The doctor referred me to hospital and they arranged for me to have a colonoscopy. When I came around from the procedure the technician confirmed that they had discovered a "polyp". "Thank god that's all it was" I said, "better than it being cancer". The technician immediately replied "Oh, I am afraid I cannot go as far as to say that". Bells started ringing.
A few days later I got a letter through the post saying I was to have an MRI and CT scan. Of course that made me fell a bit more suspicious. Everyone told me that this was just a standard thing that was done nowadays but I still had a nagging worry. I then got a letter with an appointment to see a consultant. And here dear reader was the first (of many) gut wrenching experiences.
Upon arriving at outpatients I noticed that the notice board for my consultant showed that he was running an hour late. So, when I handed my letter to the receptionist I asked her if that was still the case or if he might be even more delayed. "Oh, don't worry" she said, "no matter how late he is you will see him. And we will also tell the Oncologist that you are going to be late so no problems there".
Oncologist ? Oncologist ? The words rang in my head. Nobody had mentioned I had a meeting arranged with one as well. Thanks very much for that. Great to discover that you have cancer and be effectively told about it by a receptionist. As I sat down to wait (I was accompanied by by mother) I saw the second receptionist whisper to the first "he doesn't know !". So, I had to wait just over an hour in a most agitated state.
Well, we went in to see the consultant and he informed me of the bad news. I had stage 3 rectal cancer with infected lymph nodes. The outlook was quite good though (so he said) as it had not gone anywhere else.
I then had a course of radiotherapy and had the tumor removed in September 2014. As it was very low down in the rectum it was quite a tricky operation but my surgeon managed to join the bowel back up. I had a loop stoma and bag installed. The aim was to do a reversal at a later date.
(To be continued..... Need a break as getting somewhat emotional)
