Hello to everyone, new and old on the forums.
I've been reading through some of the relevant threads (very carefully due to my very new diagnosis and delicate frame of mind because of it) and I have to say that this information and support beats "Dr Google" every day of the year.
Not sure if this is the forum for stories, but I am just a couple of weeks into my (and my family's) journey through Rectal Cancer.
It has been a whirlwind from the moment the screening kit landed on the doormat (I am in my early 50s), through doing the test, receiving the correspondence asking for a telephone consultation with a nurse practitioner, the horrible wait for the colonoscopy and trying to calm the catastrophist within me.
Then there was the colonoscopy itself, the moment the the colonoscopist said "oh, that isn't good" or words to that effect (I was sedated), the emotional meeting with him and the nurse specialist later that day, the MRI, the CT and then being told that I would need surgery (TME + ileostomy) for rectal cancer.
This is all while being told that I am lucky given my age, fitness and the fact that I had no appreciable symptoms. Obviously, I am pleased to need as few treatments as possible, but must admit that such a large removal of tissue for a comparatively small pathology seems heartbreaking and incredibly worrying.
What is good is the apparent speed of the team through the process - head-spinningly fast. I'm scheduled for surgery in the next 4 weeks I believe (but do not have confirmation) but that is 4 weeks of wildly swinging emotions as I am coming to terms with the magnitude of the surgery and the long road back, all while trying to tell friends and family just enough without overwhelming them too. Some of the stories I have read here have been wonderfully hopeful. Thank you for all of them and I hope to provide mine in due course.
