Here’s the thing, my symptoms didn’t even seem to be colon or cancer related. I was having fatigue, out of breath, tired all the time.
Not unusual for a dude with 2 heart attacks and congestive heart failure, but the blood work was showing anemia, low red blood cell count, low hemoglobin, small red blood cells.
Something was chewing up the blood, but it wasn’t clear what.
Enter the colonoscopy/endoscopy… 17 polyps, 2 of which unusually large (20mm and 30mm). But NOT cancerous. Not even pre-cancer.
Rule of thumb is anything more than 5 or bigger than 5mm, you get re-checked 6 months later.
6 months later… 6 new polyps, and a 20mm monster that was full blown invasive stage 2 cancer.
Went under the knife 2/19, they pulled my sigmoid colon and all the related lymph nodes. If the cancer got into the lymph system, that’s stage 3 and cause for chemo.
Well, they got it all! No stage 3! But I’ve kinda been rolling around in bed ever since. 2 more weeks of recovery.
Just coming back now after my stage 2 surgery…
Here’s the thing, my symptoms didn’t even seem to be colon or cancer related. I was having fatigue, out of breath, tired all the time.
Not unusual for a dude with 2 heart attacks and congestive heart failure, but the blood work was showing anemia, low red blood cell count, low hemoglobin, small red blood cells.
Something was chewing up the blood, but it wasn’t clear what.
Enter the colonoscopy/endoscopy… 17 polyps, 2 of which unusually large (20mm and 30mm). But NOT cancerous. Not even pre-cancer.
Rule of thumb is anything more than 5 or bigger than 5mm, you get re-checked 6 months later.
6 months later… 6 new polyps, and a 20mm monster that was full blown invasive stage 2 cancer.
Went under the knife 2/19, they pulled my sigmoid colon and all the related lymph nodes. If the cancer got into the lymph system, that’s stage 3 and cause for chemo.
Well, they got it all! No stage 3! But I’ve kinda been rolling around in bed ever since. 2 more weeks of recovery.
God damn, good catch! Wishing you the best of luck in your recovery and your remission.
Yeah, I tell this story because going from 0 to stage 2 in 6 months is terrifying.
Best of luck on your recovery!
Thanks!