Hi there,i have just joined the site so am new to all this blogging and chat rooms etc. Any tips you guys can offer will be gratefully received! As mentioned in my profile I just found out on Monday of this week that i have cancer in my rectum. I have a long complicated medical history as have had Crohns disease since the age of 17 and had many operations over the years. I was shell-shocked to learn that i now have cancer on top of all this so am just trying to come to terms with the news. I need to go for 2 scans the first of which is this coming monday 1st march - a CT scan. then i am waiting for a date for an MRI scan. They want to see me back in outpatients 2 weeks from this Monday so its all meant to be happening quite quiickly. I live in South Yorkshire and am under the care of Leeds General Infirmary. Am tryng to take each day at a time, but not always easy and yesterday after the initial numbness reality kicked in and i had a little cry with myself. I split up with my partner a year ago so living alone at this time is not the best thing,but i have lots of brilliant friends who have all rallied round to support me and feed me up etc! I look forward to getting involved with the website and 'meeting' people who understand what i am going thru and can help me find my way thru this strange new world i am entering. i'll sign off now, not really sure what else to say. hope to hear from someone soon!
FormerMember
You have found the best place to be for support and friendship as you go on this 'journey'. I can empathise re being alone as I live on my own and was diagnosed with malignant melanoma August last year. Like you I also have a wonderful network of friends and neighbours and I was taken very good care of during my journey. I also found so much support here and know you will to.
Hi to everyone who has put some lovely kind comments on in response to my introduction last week. its so heartwarming to know that there are people out there who have been or are going thru the 'system' and can guide me thru these unchartered waters. i have my ups and downs and am doing my best to keep 'busy' with what i call 'practical' tasks such as sorting out my mobile phone account as my contract is due to end soon. silly isnt it, i s'pose we just want some kind of normality amidst the illness, tests, hosp visits etc. it all helps as i have one of those annoying minds that never shut off!! as i think drew said, once you know what the diagnosis/prognosis is you can get yr head round it more and know what u are up against. as one of my friends said, this is the worst time as i am in limbo, playing the old 'waiting game' ( Phoenix Nights (peter kay) when Gerry thought he was going to die and was waiting for test results... daft programme but hilarious with it. its seems to be all waiting with the good old NHS. they are brill when u finally get in the system,its just getting to that point. I am going for my MRI scan tomorrow morning at Jimmys in Leeds. I had a call from the hospital yesterday saying they had brought my results appt fwd from 16/3 tom 9/3. Eek! i was a bit shocked as had psyched myself up to wait another week and get my 'business' done etc. its still not a done deal as subject to both sets of test results being ready. i understand that they have a meeting on Monday a.m to discuss pending cases and only then will i know whether i will go this mon or next. i shall be a wreck!! Yikes! Daresay it will work itself out in its own way as these things do. out of your control so try (ha!) go with the flow..never my forte...!!
...and to the rest of you. My Mum has recently been diagnosed with rectal cancer - Dukes 3 at the moment and is about to start 5 weeks of radiochemotherapy before operation in a few months. Shes imerresed in the process and, as her main support, I am too. So looking to share with you all the things that touch us during the process and hopefully help some others along the way. Not completely au fait with the site yet so bear with me!!
