In the few weeks leading up to this, I had a few health issues that myself and my wife could not explain, me being me, I didn’t think it would be anything, it was a lot more my wife acknowledging that perhaps I should get checked out.
One of the things I first noticed just before Christmas 2020 was that I was slowly losing weight, even over Christmas eating and drinking a bit more than usual I still didn’t put on any weight, hindsight there, that is a warning sign that something was wrong. In my head I put the weight down to the fact I hadn’t been exercising as regularly as I once was, perhaps I was just losing muscle mass, as it was a slow gradual loss.
Other things I had noticed before the weight decline around Christmas, was that in November 2020 I was on my exercise bike and I had to stop as I suddenly came over all dizzy (which hadn’t happened before). I also for a few months (since maybe July 2020) had, had a sore right hip, which I kept putting ice packs on to calm down, no doctor has ever been able to confirm if this was related to my tumour, but as the tumour was on the right side of my bowel, I do partly wonder if that was another warning sign.
At the start of 2021, myself and my wife went for some early morning walks on Saturdays (basically to avoid people due to being in the covid pandemic). On January 9th I turned the ripe old age of 33, we went for a walk in a forested area where we have been a few times before, during the walk I felt myself go quite dizzy and feel out of breath, as we had gone out for the walk before breakfast, I put it down to not having eaten for the dizziness and just assumed the being out of breath was a lack of fitness. Staying with the 9th, in the evening we randomly decided to sing and dance to the song “Robots” by Flight of the Conchords, again I got out of breath doing this, but still didn’t think much of it.
Following week, January 16th, again another walk, again I felt out of breath, this time walking up slight inclines, which I had been fine with walking up and down just a few months earlier. Once again I put this down to a lack of fitness and carried on to the next week. So on January 23rd off we went for another walk, to a place called South Hill Park in Bracknell. This was the walk that finished me off, walking up an incline which I could do quite easily before, I got horrifically out of breath again, to the point I felt I was going to be sick, I really couldn’t breathe and felt awful, we slowly made our way home. Even upon getting home, I still didn’t really admit anything was wrong; it was my wife that filled out a form online to get in contact with someone from 111.
Resulting from this form that my wife filled in, 111 called me and asked me a few questions (from memory mainly to see if I had any other symptoms that could suggest the shortness of breath was covid related). Once I had confirmed that I did not have any other symptoms I was sent to a walk in centre in Slough, where I had a covid test and they listened to my chest. Alas they could not say what they thought was wrong with me, the suggestion made was perhaps I was having some kind of allergic reaction to the cold weather or something, perhaps the temperature was affecting how I was breathing.
As this did not fill me with confidence after seeing the walk in centre doctor, I finally made an appointment to see my doctor on the Tuesday. Once I was called in at the doctors, we had to walk up a flight of stairs to the doctors room, with a face mask on I got really out of breath again, which I think helped the doctor realise I really wasn’t right. From this he arranged for me to have an x-ray carried out to check my chest at a local hospital and to have blood tests taken along with having an ECG by the nursing team. I had the x-ray carried out on the Wednesday then on the Thursday went for the blood tests and ECG.
On the Thursday evening after my blood tests I received a call from the doctors, the blood test results had come back and they required me to urgently go to hospital, as my haemoglobin levels were at 38 (or 3.8, different health professionals I have seen refer to the levels differently, either way, it was very very low). So we quickly packed a few things into a bag in case I had to stay in for a while and my wife drove me to Frimley Park Hospital, where I walked into the A&E department to be checked out.
The first point where I realised quite how low my haemoglobin levels were, was because some of the nursing staff were shocked I hadn’t been brought in by an ambulance and had walked in through the front door by myself; there it dawned on me slightly that something must be wrong. I was put in an A&E bay to be checked out, this was where I got my first experience of a doctor checking me over by putting a finger in my bum (I feel sorry for doctors having to do this), so I do wonder if they thought early on I could have bowel cancer due to my anaemia and the fact I mentioned I’d noticed a gradual decline in my weight. I was also asked if I had noticed any blood in my stools when going to the toilet, but I had never noticed anything. After this I was taken for another x-ray and then a CT scan before then being put on the acute medical unit at 12:45am on Friday 29th January.
Once I had a bed on the ward, I was given the first of what would be 4 pints of blood transfusions during my stay to boost my haemoglobin levels, I was also given an iron infusion as well to boost my levels (upon discharge I left hospital with a haemoglobin count of 78, so an improvement, but in the scheme of things, not the best). During the Friday I went through further tests, including another ECG, followed by an ultra sound test on my chest to check my heart and finally another CT scan this time with contrast. The doctors were also asking after my family history to see if that could give them any guidelines as to why my haemoglobin was so low whilst they waited for results, I had forgotten until my Mum messaged me to remind me that my Dad had bowel cancer (Dukes B carcinoma) when he was 36/37 (I would have been 6/7 at that time). As my Dad had other health issues since then, I had completely forgotten he had bowel cancer when I was younger.
Then on Saturday 30th January, I wasn’t sure what was happening at first. I definitely was getting frustrated and wanted to get home as no one was really telling me anything in hospital and I wasn’t being allowed any food, when I asked the nursing team about this, they advised that I the doctor was doing their rounds and would speak to me and explain when they saw me. However this just made me more agitated, the waiting and wondering what was going on really allowed my mind to wonder and I tried everything I could to distract myself. It was then around lunchtime where the doctor came to see me, I admit I cannot remember word for word what was said to me, but it was along the lines of, “have you got anyone that could come in and sit with you to discuss what we have found? As it would be better to have someone here with you”.
Nothing else was really said about why I wasn’t getting any food or what they had found. I phoned my wife in tears, as at this point I thought I was staying in hospital for a lot longer (so asked her to bring more clothes and some books for me) and I was also convinced that I was going to die in hospital, perhaps there was something seriously wrong with me and that the end of my life was on the horizon. Even after finishing the call with my wife, I really struggled to hold back the tears. Once my wife arrived at the hospital she was sent into a meeting room and I was collected from my bed and taken there to meet her, where I think we were both getting teary as we waited for the doctor to join us.
The doctor then joined us in this meeting room and spoke about the tests they carried out on me and what they had found. This is where I was told from the CT scans I had showed a right sided colon cancer and that I would need a colonoscopy to further check this out (this would happen within 2 weeks), however for the time being I would be discharged to go home, but if I noticed anything wrong to make sure I went back to hospital. The reason I wasn’t being given any food was because they weren’t sure if I was in pain when eating, however no one had asked me this, as at that time I wasn’t in pain, I was just really hungry. Upon getting this diagnosis, I seem to remember my wife being more upset than me, I think in my head I was relieved I was going home and that I wasn’t about to die, which is the place where I had been an hour or so before. I was eventually discharged and went home, where I called my parents and sister to give them the bad news. We then ordered a takeaway because we felt we deserved it. As the evening went on I slowly updated friends over text message, as they knew I had been in hospital, to be honest I couldn’t face phoning anyone else.
The Friday after my discharge I was then back at Frimley for another iron infusion, just as part of the process to keep trying to boost my haemoglobin levels.
