Helo all,
My name is EvaG and I was diagnosed with rectal cancer recently, just a week short of my 60th birthday, in July 2023. I have been suffering from constipation for months, so my family doctor sent me to do the stool test (results were clear!), and then sent me for a scheduled colonoscopy to a GI specialist (usually done every 10 years after your 50th BD). The colonoscopy showed me on the clear as well, aside from a minor polip which was removed. A week later I ended up in the emergency with a severe constipation pains: after emergency CT scan I was told that there was a mass in my rectum, which the doctors strongly suspected was cancerous, and urged me to follow up with my GI and family doctors. This is when I felt I have fallen off the Rainbow Bridge into the Niagara Falls... I was drowning, scared, numb... My son's family had just arrived and brought me my most precious birthday present - my 5 year old granddaughter! So instead of a week off with my family and friends, hoping to be visiting exciting and beautiful places in southern Ontario, I spent days with various medical personnel being probed, examined, poked with various needles, re-examined, and all over again... So, after 3 colonoscopies within a week, an MRI, and 3 separate consults later (referred by the original GI), living in a paralyzed fear waiting to hear when is my expiry date due, I received my final diagnosis 3 weeks later - Signet Ring cell Adenocarcinoma, T2, no metastasis, mass approx 4cm in the rectum muscle wall, near a node, close to the anal end. I feel lucky, that at the time when all this happened, I had my loved ones beside me, and I continue to have their love and support! I feel lucky and I am immensely grateful, that since the initial discovery of my cancer 2 months ago, the doctors managed to pinpoint exactly which type of cancer I have, and prepared a treatment plan for me to folow going forward. I already completed my 25 course chemoradiatiion, a chemo is planned to follow this November with the aim to shrink the tumor to an operable size. I am determined to endure all the pain during my steep cancer journey, will follow the best advice of my 3 medical teams and continue to believe that I will be a Cancer Survivor! After all, it is a s....y situation, and the best I could do is Hope and Laugh about it, so my social name is BadAssEva 😉 Have Hope and cherish the Love of the people closest to you ♥️
Sharing with you All my best wishes for complete recovery in your own cancer journey!