So, I hadn't been feeling good for a while. I guess around the holidays. Night sweats, nausea, fatigue, running random fevers with no other symptoms
of being sick. I was having blood in my stool, but I had on and off for years. Freaked me out a bit but not much. I just figured I had a hemorrhoid or something. Kept feeling worse and worse.
I kept losing weight. Then more blood. Alot of times it was just blood and mucus. I tried getting on health insurance before going to the Dr because I knew it was something bad. But it didn't work, and open enrollment for Jared's work wasn't until October.
I finally got scared and sick enough to go in even without insurance.
So I went in Thursday the 22nd. As I told the doctor my symptoms I could see his face change. I could tell he was really concerned. They did blood work, rectal exam, pap, checked all my lymph nodes that they were able. Manually checked for masses. Couldn't find anything.
Set me up for the CAT scan for the afternoon of Monday the 26th. The doctors office called me first thing that morning because they had gotten my blood work back. Everything was very off. So they wanted me to come in to check my vitals to make sure I was stable. That freaked me out. The nurses tone of voice scared me. I had to call into work and tell them I wasn't coming in for the morning like I had planned on. I cried. And I'm not a crier. My red blood cell count was 6.2. Should be 12 or over. Talked about doing a blood transfusion but decided against it. My white blood cell count was off, my liver enzymes were off.
Went to Caldwell for the CAT scan. I hated drinking the bottle of contrast, but managed to get it all down. They also gave me intravenous contrast that made me feel like I peed my pants. Luckily the nice lady running the CAT scan warned me ahead of time or I would have freaked out...lol. It only took 15 minutes or so. They put a rush on the results, As soon as I was dressed they told me to go back to my Dr's office in Vale, that he had the results.
We got back to Vale, and the Dr. asked me what was the worst thing I though it could be. I said Colon cancer and he said I was right. Mainly on my left side. I'd Having pain there. And there were also a dozen or so spots on my liver. And the lymph nodes around that area are swollen. I wasn't sure if they are just trying to fight this crap off, or if they were infected with too. Didn't ask.
So I went and saw a surgeon the next day, Tuesday the 27th. Just had a talk. He scheduled a colonoscopy for Friday afternoon.
So Thursday I did the dreaded clean out. The worst part was drinking all that crap. I'd been feeling sick for months now, and it didn't help.
Friday morning I felt absolutely horrible. Very weak. Light headed. Just all around bad.
Went to the hospital, and of course they were running an hour late. So I had to sit there and fret about things.
Took me back, blew out me veins twice. (ouch)
They finally gave me the drugs to make me loo loo. I guess I was moving during the procedure so they gave me more.
The procedure took about an hour. They let me wake up all on my own, so I was out for 3 hours. When I woke up, I actually felt good. Better than I had in days. It was really bizarre because I expected to feel like crap and be really tired. I didn't even take a nap at all after the colonoscopy, which for me these days is what I do alot of.
Stopped at McDonalds on the way home. Actually ate the whole thing except for a few french fries. Some friends of mine brought over dinner and I ate again, and had a big bowl of ice cream too. (Eating has been an issue for me lately so I was excited).
So I have pictures of my colon now. They were worried about being able to get all the way through my large intestines with the growth, but they were able to
. They removed several polyps (I have picture of those too, very interesting) and then took samples of the tumor which is about 2 inches and shaped like a horseshoe. It blocks off about 2/3 of my large intestines but things can still get past there. I have had alot of cramping though, which I'm sure is stuff sort of getting stuck there a bit. They sent the pieces of the tumor to pathology. (I have a nice picture of the tumor too).
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