So an amazing weekend trip to Chicago to knock off one of my husband's big bucket list items turned into a trip to A&E for me and then some horribly shocking news.
The day after we got back from Chicago I started to get a horrendous pain in my right side. I struggled on for a day and could no longer stand it so I drove myself to A&E at my local hospital ( Note for future...dont drive yourself if you can help it - my poor car was there for days!)
The doctors originally thought it was a liver abscess and put me on IV antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds and kept me in. From day 2 i was feeling pretty much back to normal and getting grumpy that I couldn't go home but the staff assured me that I would get treatment and scans done so much quicker if I remained an inpatient. So i was a very impatient inpatient!
I had ultrasounds, CT and MRI scans during this time and no further updates
5 days later feeling much better and pain free for 3 days and begging to be let out... the mood suddenly changed and then I was taken to a side room on the ward - with handy box of tissues. Ut oh.....
In came a lovely junior doctor and her young friend ( still no idea who she was) I must be getting old as they seemed about 12....anyway.... She stuttered, put her head on one side and affected a sympathetic demeanor before slowly leading up to the fact that they thought i had cancer.
Wait that wasnt slowly leading up at all!
They were both just looking at me now. All i could think of was 'couldnt they get a grown up to tell me? - and couldnt they have waited until my husband came into visit'
I suddenly felt hot and a bit faint and before you knew it i was puking into the nicely laid out tissue box ( needs must...)
At this point they said it was definitely cancer in the colon and they think they saw something on the liver...there was no point keeping me in and i would be on the cancer 2 week wait for a colonoscopy.
Someone came in and took my cannula out...and they phoned my husband to come get me....
I was stunned and had noone to ask what was going on I thought my head was going to explode..
The next day for some reason I had a yearning to go to the garden centre. My poor long suffering husband had taken the day off work to help me cope with the news. While I was wandering around the plants completely out of my non green fingered depth I received a call on my mobile phone. It was the hospital. I had a colonoscopy booked for a couple of weeks and they would send me some meds and instructions.
The colonoscopy and thorax scan completed and it was confirmed that i had a 25mm flat tumour in my bowel and the scans had confirmed that I had 3 tumours in my liver - No lymph nodes affected and everything else is crystal clear.
I am otherwise in great health no other problems at all and apart from this short episode of pain you wouldnt know i have cancer. Unless you spotted at the terrified look on my face....
Next I have to meet with the oncologist tomorrow to discuss my 'plan' I have noticed that I have a jar of Marmite in the cupboard with an expiry date of Dec 2019...I am tempted to bring it to my appointment to ask if I will last longer than my Marmite?
As you notice I am trying to use some humour to get me through the abject terror but I do hope to keep this blog going both for my own sanity and hopefully to share with others for their input and maybe help someone else along the way....
So concludeth my first episode in the soap opera that is my bowel cancer 'journey'
