My story......thought i'd share

hachi · Regular Joined: 12 Apr 2008 Posts: 10

It was the end of January 2006, I was 19 and i had just started college at a local technical school. Everything was going fine, I was doing very well in all my classes and everything just seemed to be going my way.

Until mid February when i started having abdominal pains/stomach aches Sad

I thought it was just a regular spell so I let it run for a day or two. It seemed to go away after i took some tummy medicine ( anti-acids ). Then toward the end of the month the pains came back and again i took some anti-acids and they stopped. But over the months the pain kept on coming back and by the start of October the pain was so bad that I couldn't move around/stand up for a few hours. All I could do was sit there and hope that it would pass, it eventually did and the next morning i scheduled a appointment with my doctor.

When i finally saw my doctor he told me to take some more medicine. This time it was prescription, but a last it did not stop the pain. So i again set up another appointment and this time around he sent me to the gastro dept. and ordered a x-ray/MRI of some sort and they couldn't find anything either.

I talked to my doctor once more and he then sent me to a oncologist at one of the larger hospitals in the area and ordered for me a Barium enema

The B.E revealed a irregularity and so they immediately ordered a Colonoscopy. The Colonoscopy revealed a tumor and as of November 29th of 2006 I was diagnosed with Colan Cancer at the age of 19. The doctors were really shocked because of my age; at only 19 and with Colan Cancer. I was shocked as well since i had had a perfect health record, i didnt smoke and i dont think i had ingested anything that would cause it; nor did any of my relatives or family at any time ever had any kind of cancer.

The doctors operated immediately, they removed the tumor and reconnected my colan. I was stuck in the hospital for two weeks on a strict liquid diet ( I remember when i got back home I practicly ran to the fridge and grabbed some solid food ).

Chemotherapy started mid January of 2007 ( Oxyplatain, 5fu and foulfox ) and lasted through june 26th of 2007. Six grueling months of chemo drugs and there terrible side effects. I think the one side-effect that i hated the most was the sensitivity to cold/numbness at the finger tips ( i had a car project going in the garage and i couldn't even pick-up a wrench and/or work it correctly. I'm a car person :p ) but to tell you the truth they were all bad since the pretty much crippled me on a daily basis.

But after i finished my chemotherapy, I have been going back and fourth between visits and no sign of re-occurance yet. I hope to keep it that way.

DulcimerGal

Wow Hachi - I think you are youngest person I have seen posting on here actually with cancer. Yours is an incredible story. I am so glad for you that you finished your six months of chemo. How do you feel now?

I am sure that was quite a grueling couple of years, but I hope you're going to make the most of life now that they have taken it out. Were you diagnosed stage 3?

Please keep posting and help us understand the side effects, you have made some great comments already.

Take care
DulcimerGal

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