How my cancer was diagnosed.

I had noticed increased frequency of defecation from early in April 2012.  But what finally drove me to see my GP was the sight of a little bit of blood after I went to the toilet.  So I saw my GP on 11^th May and had a finger up my bum.  He didn’t say anything about a lump at the time – only mentioned that my prostate was enlarged.  I was referred to the colorectal team at Kingston hospital as he said this was the standard procedure with patients who had had a change in toilet habits lasting several weeks.  I saw a doctor at St Mary’s Roehampton a fortnight later. She said there was a suspicious lump in my rectum that ‘bled to touch’.  There then followed in the next fortnight - an upper body CAT scan, colonoscopy, and MRI on my rectum.  The colorectal surgeon who performed the colonoscopy said that the lump looked like cancer and took a biopsy. He said that they would probably give me chemotherapy and radiation therapy to shrink the tumour before surgery.  He said with surgery on the rectum you are quite limited as to what and where you can cut due to the presence of vital blood vessels and hence the need to shrink the tumour first. 

On Monday 11^th June my wife and I were back at St Mary’s to hear the results of the scans.  We met with the same colorectal surgeon who had done the colonoscopy.   He said that the CAT scan had indicated that the cancer had spread to my liver.  He said that there was quite a lot of metastasis and he didn’t think a liver resection could be done.   He went on to say that surgery on my rectum was not now appropriate as systemic treatment was needed.  So I was passed on to the oncologist in the next room.  She is normally based at the Marsden.  She said I would start chemotherapy once the pathology on the biopsy had been completed.  They are also planning an MRI scan on my liver and a full body PET scan and I am currently awaiting these appointments.

At the moment I feel fine.  My only symptoms are slight discomfort on the toilet.  I have cut right down on fibre and now produce a lot less wind – which helps a lot.