8 Year Anniversary

8 years ago yesterday I had surgery to remove a rectal cancerous tumour. 

My diagnosis came as a shock as I’d stuck my head in the sand and convinced myself that the blood I was seeing was due to a life style change - taking redundancy from my job and starting the day with a cup of tea in bed. I postponed my initial colonoscopy to go on holiday but when I had it done I remember seeing something worrying on the screen and commenting ‘ooh that doesn’t look very good’. The nurse told me after that they were 99% sure it was cancerous and the biopsy confirmed this. After the usual scans the consultant told me that there was no spread to other organs although they suspected that a couple of lymph nodes were affected T3N1M0. I asked him if they could cure me and his reply of ‘we’re treating you with a view to cure’ became my motivation.

If you click on my name then my profile page shows my timeline and the various ups and downs of my treatment. I remember searching for good news stories when first starting out and this is my reason for posting this update.

A lot of people dislike the ‘keep positive’ phrase but I always believed that I would get through it. I got a lot of support from this board and made a friend for life with a lady going through the same thing at the same time. We dragged each other through the lows and raised a glass of wine during the highs and we’re both still ‘no evidence of disease’.