I lost my Dad to bowel cancel on 13th January 2010 so nearly 13 years ago. I was always angry that it took so long to diagnose him (he and my mum had been going to the GP for 18months about a weird blockage he felt before they were taken seriously) but this has been thrown back into the limelight with my partners very close friend and I am having a lot of mixed emotions that I can't really share elsewhere so here I am. Short version - My dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer end of October 2009 at 64, had a colostomy fitted and sent home. He died the day before his chemo started.
Cue October this year, my partners friend has been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer that has spread liver, lungs and bones. He's only in his 40s, and I'm being very careful not to share my dad's experience of diagnosis to death being about 2 months and that wasn't stage 4 or spread. So normal emotions, I am so very sorry for what they're going through but I'm also angry. They're on round 3 of chemo already, were taken seriously the first time they went in complaining of stomach pain, scans straight away etc etc. How is that fair? Why wasn't my dad treated straight away, why did he have to wait 2 months from surgery to his first appointment at Christie's that he didn't make!
Other than Macmillan who sent a nurse every day to help my dad with his bag and administer morphine no one did anything. Even the bloody GP wouldn't come out the weekend he was dying and told my mum he'd be fine just change the morphine patch. She had to get the postman to help her lift him back into bed when he fell out. I can't share these emotions in really life as I realise I'm being ridiculous, it happened 13 years ago and I'm sure cancer diagnosis and treatment has improved since then. I just wanted to put it in words and maybe someone else out there has been through this too and can offer some words of wisdom to put the anger to bed. Thanks.
