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I did pretty much the same thing a month ago.

deep breath. You’re not dying.

Anal cancer is ‘indolent’ that means it doesn’t grow fast or spread fast. The internet will tell you it’s caused by sexual activity, that’s outdated. It’s most common now in middle aged women who haven’t led particularly rock n roll lives.

That awful feeling you have is fear. It will fade away over the next couple of weeks, especially when you get scan results and see your doctor.

We are all going through the same thing and we’re a lovely bunch of friendly people. Come back here to rant and check stuff out.

We’ll look after you,

Trish xx

Hi

I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis and that you find yourself here. You have come to the right place, there are many people on this forum who understand how you are feeling and what you’ll be going through. 

You are not going mad, how you are feeling is totally normal as you are trying to process the bombshell of your diagnosis. It will feel enormous and over-whelming for a while. There’s a lot to take in, learn and consider and your mind will take you to dark places and scare you. 

Most of us had never heard of anal cancer. As you’re probably learning its a rare skin cancer, around 1200 people get it every year in the UK. Sadly it is often misdiagnosed as haemorrhoids. This is what happened to me. I’d been feeling well but had what I thought was an external haemorrhoid. I treated it myself for a few months, then saw my doctor when it became more painful. She also agreed it was a haemorrhoid and sent me off with steroid cream. Cut a long story short I ended up in A&E and thats when they discovered my 4 x 4 tumor and told me I had anal cancer. Complete and utter shock as I’d never heard of it. The weeks that preceded were torturous, scans lots of waiting whilst I thought my life would be cut short and my kids would be left motherless. 

I’ll fast forward. I completed the protocol chemo-radiation in June 2018 and in September 2018 was told my tumor had gone. I am now 13 months NED (no evidence of disease) a new term that basically means remission. I am living my life as I always did. The treatment changes your body and the cancer changes your outlook, life will never be the same but you can get your life back.

So the important thing to know about this cancer is that it is curable. The treatment is short, sharp and very effective. You will read lots of positive stories on this forum. 

Have you had the results of your scans yet? staging, next steps etc? Its a very challenging time waiting for this information and for your treatment to start. Once treatment starts believe it or not, you will feel better. You will be focused on getting through your treatment and ticking off the days. Treatment is manageable, side effects are not pleasant but they can vary greatly.

This forum is brilliant you can come on here anytime and there will always be someone who will answer your questions or help you. You can also request to be-friend someone which is particularly useful if you find someone else who is at the same stage as you. This is what I did, I found another lady who was starting treatment the same day, we swapped details and supported each other throughout our treatment and beyond.

There is also the Macmillan Helpline (tel no. at the bottom) you can call at any time to talk to professional nurses. The ‘Ask The Expert’ feature at the top of this page is another great resource offering you the opportunity to email directly an anal cancer surgeon. 

I’ll leave it there for now as I could talk forever about this subject.

I just want to reiterate that the treatment is manageable and very effective. It is over very quickly. You are not alone, there are many people on this forum at different stages in their cancer journeys who will be listening and ready to support you.

Like all the people before you, you will get through this. We will help you.

Sarah x

Hi Littleoaks,

You've already received a couple of great responses here,  Trish has recently gone through exactly the stage you’re at now & is still fairly early on in her journey & Sarah, like myself, is a year+ on from treatment for this diagnosis & again like myself in remission. 

You are at the worst stage of all of this right now, the shock & devastation of a cancer diagnosis that you really didn’t expect is indescribable. You expect that if you have cancer you’d feel ill right? Or at least have some pretty indicative symptoms! But as you now know that’s not always the case. Like you I popped off to my GP with what I suspected to be piles & within a 10 minute consultation was referred on the 2 week pathway to my local lower colon team who thought I had a polyp & internal ulcer, cut a long story short, went in to have polyp removed & ulcer repaired only to be told I’d been biopsied instead & 7 days later I had a cancer diagnosis. From then on it’s a bit of a whirlwind. Your team sound quite on the ball & haven't hung around though so that’s a positive as this cancer often goes misdiagnosed as piles etc., for quite some time. 

In answer to your question you will feel ‘normal’ again, you’ve a couple of hurdles to overcome first but you’ll get there. Having a cancer diagnosis has definitely changed my outlook & mindset I would say for the better, I don’t worry about some of the silly things that I used to worry about, it changes your prospectives. I feel it’s kind of had a positive impact on my life, that won’t I’m sure make any sense to you right now but hopefully down the line you’ll look back & hopefully feel the same. I now don’t worry about work, I leave it at the door when I walk out, I look after myself better, physically & mentally, I feed myself well, I make more time for friends & family & enjoy just being here! 

This is the place to come with questions or even if you just fancy a moan about things in general. I definitely found this forum invaluable especially in the beginning & it’s where I found the lovely Sarah who when going through treatment at the same time we supported each other each step of the way. 

Take a breath & we’re all here whenever you need us.

Nicola x