Hiding?

Hi Natalie. I have a rare bowel cancer, which was found by colonoscopy, but is quite difficult to image and, therefore, stage. This meant there was quite a bit of discussion by MDT on whether or not to give me pre-op chemotherapy. In the end they decided to go straight for surgery. It was only after the bowel resection they were able to definitely confirm the staging, which was Stage 3. My oncologist subsequently admitted it was more advanced than they thought from the imaging but medical science isn’t perfect.

Hope this next set of tests lead to a diagnosis.

All the best.

Maninbath (Tom)

Thank you for sharing Tom and I’m so sorry to hear this. It sounds like you have been on such a journey.

if you are happy to share, may I ask what your symptoms were please?

Hi HantsHog,

I didn’t have any symptoms. I went for a routine medical in February 2022 provided by my employer that included a FIT test. That came back positive with a score that just said >200 and my cancer journey started. 

The cancer was found at my Splenic Flexture (where the large intestine makes its right angle turn) on the left side of my abdomen. The biopsy from the colonoscopy identified the cancer as poorly differentiated signet ring cell cancer, which account for about 2% of all adenocarcinomas.

If I hadn’t had that medical I may well not have known about the cancer until even later.

My profile tells the full story of my cancer journey - it’s been epic!

All the best.

Tom