Hi everyone,
i ummm’d and ahhh’d over joining this and creating a topic but thought it can only help.
Im 38, I’ve always eaten fairly healthy, hardly ever drink alcohol and never smoked. In around November last year I started getting a small amount of pain in my upper abdomen. It came and went, i went to the GP a couple of times about it who said I might have acid reflux. Fast forward to March time this year, I started vomiting on regular basis, to the point I just became immune to going to throwing up, it was not normal sick it was like watery bile. This got worse as the months went by, I went to A&E about 8 times in 3 months to always be told I had acid reflux again even tho I showed them videos of my tummy movemenets, it was almost like a baby moving……im a guy by the way 
25th July i went home from work, it took me 10 minutes to get upstairs, i went to bed around 5pm. My mom rang me about 8pm to see if I was ok, i said I feel ill and put FaceTime on. She said how grey i looked, half hour later my parents were at my house, back to A&E we went…..said Im dehydrated so will give me fluids and send me home. My dad stepped in and said basically, but why’s he dehydrated… they did a blood test, my kidney function was 15%. The next day I had a CT scan, they found a growth in my abdomen, they said I needed an emergency operation.
The following day they gave me some different drips to prep me for the op, 1 of which I questioned as the consultant didn’t say that one, around 2 hours later the consultant came to check on me and went crazy at the nurses to ask why I was on the drip I questioned, so they delayed my op by 2 hours.
After the op I was in hospital for 4 days, I felt ok after day 2, I’ve always been fit and did boxing until about June. They sent me home with my meds, no mention of the c word, just the word growth. I was getting to the end of my blood thinning injections at the end of August, I noticed “colorectal cancer” at the bottom of my discharge letter. Nobody ever mentioned that word to me,or my parents. My consultant confirmed it at a meeting the end of August, they also said there’s a 1mm nodule on a lung but is probably nothing to worry about, i always remember about age 18 I had a scan and the hospital mentioned a small mark on my lung. So im T4N1M0 and they found it in 1 node closest to the tumour out of 14 they removed, which in my head to only be in 1 is a good thing? They couldn’t see anything else on my CT scan and said my tumour is a slow growing kind and it could of been growing for 10 years from a polyp.
I had a colonoscopy in September, they found a tiny unrelated polyp in my colon and plan to remove it at some stage.
Once I got over the shock of it all and the anxiety, I felt fine most of September.
Today I started my adjuvant chemo, CAPOX.
My left hands a bit tingly, my feet tingle a little on cold flooring and I have a bit of a runny nose….all possible side effects of oxy, I have just taken my oral Capecitabine for the first time 1800mg. Hopefully I can beat this, I think the survival rate is about 76%, but given my age, fitness and diet I’d hope it would be slightly higher. I asked the oncologist and he said he would expect some one of my health to be ok.
My cousin who was my best mate died of leukaemia at my age, and I saw him get progressively worse, that’s my reference to cancer. I know it’s completely different but I can’t help but compare.
Looking for any advice really for side effects to come, how to cope with scan anxiety, I don’t get upset anymore I just think my energy needs to be spent on getting better and for my 6 year old son, not crying over something I can’t do anything about.
Sorry for the long intro!
Craig
