Since this is the greatest collection of quality people on the internet, I figured I'd share a bit of my life the last few days.
Last week I had some very bad abdominal pain and a few other gross poop related symptoms. I made an appointment with a doctor on Thursday thinking it was a bleeding ulcer but they decided to refer me to the ER.
Emergency did a few tests and scans and all indications were cancer in the colon that had metastasized to the liver. My pain and symptoms were from a microperfortion in the colon. They didn't want to mess with the colon out of fear of tearing that perforation so they took a liver biopsy. I stayed in the hospital for monitoring and pain management and got the biopsy results yesterday. They came back exactly as expected, adenocarcinoma.
Last night I had diversion surgery so the perforation could heal and allow me to start chemo within 2 or 3 weeks. So now I get to poop in a bag attached to my belly for a while until they feel it's safe to reattach everything. (sidenote, I've learned that you have no control over gas with the diversion so that's fun letting out sputtering farts while in a conversation with someone)
My case is not operable, but they are optimistic that it will be manageable though different treatments and drugs so that will be something I'll be dealing with the rest of my life.
Overall it's a pretty shocking diagnosis as I'm only 40 and have never had any other medical issues. I'm handling it pretty well, but my parents are both devastated and I really feel for them.
That's about the full story as of now. I'll probably have some more fun stories as I get in to the chemo.