Friends... I am not one for the dramatic and certainly not one that generally would make such announcements and I general keep things very private, but here goes and maybe someone will learn something. We are hard headed creatures.
If you are nearing 50 or if you have a family history of cancers, then get yourself to a doctor and have that dreaded colonoscopy (not nearly as bad as you might imagine). Most here are men and we don't like to discuss or talk about having something probed up our backside, but it could be critical to you to do so.
Some here may know, while you guys were having fun at Hallett, I was in the hospital in Dallas having a colon resection (basically removing about 10 inches of my colon and having it reattached).
I had some symptoms (blood in stool) for close to a year that I ignored as hemorrhoids until Kendra finally had a break down and forced me to see a doctor and be checked out.
Initial visit was just a finger up that region, but did reveal a polyp..not an hemorrhoid that needed removing. I was then scheduled for a full colonoscopy and minor surgery to remove that polyp. The colonoscopy revealed a much larger polyp out of reach for removal during the first surgery, so a second surgery would be needed.
Second surgery was scheduled during Hallett weekend and was much more involved and I spent 5 days at the hospital recovering. A full biopsy was performed from each surgery. First was fine, close to cancer, but none and it was the polyp the doctor had some concern about. However... second polyp which appeared fine, did have some cancer that had spread to a few nearby lymph nodes.
First thing that is done is a colon resection, which I have already had done, but I will now begin chemotherapy today.
This is not as bad as it may sound, while still scary and some really emotional roller coasters to get to this point over the past few weeks, the overall prognosis is still pretty good.
I have had now a full CT scan, full PET scan and all are good with no other cancer found at this time. The cancer was found early.. not as early as would have been preferred, but early enough that I will probably be okay.
I will be taking the chemotherapy twice a month for 6 months mostly as a precaution to kill any cancer cells that may have escaped the area in the colon, but not large enough to show up on the scans. This chemo treatment is not the kind that causes all hair loss, or constant sickness, but will likely cause a lot of fatigue and neuropathy(tingling) in my hands and feet that is exaggerated by touching or drinking cold things.
This is not posted as a pity for me, as I hope to be okay, but more of a warning to you thick mullet head racers that will ignore symptoms and avoid the finger. Go get checked out.. it isn't is bad as I had imagined.
This treatment is not supposed to be debilitating and I plan to work and carry on life as normal as possible.
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Originally Posted by mach1
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