Kandy's Story

April 19th, 2001 I went to my GP doctor because I had not passed stool for 9 days at this time.... I was in alot of pain and I was double shifting at work, so I was trying to hold out until Monday to see what was going on with me. I had tried laxatives etc, nothing helped, so I just stopped eating around the 17th of April.

Well, my doctor had me do a sonogram and wait for the results. This is now Thursday evening. I try to make it to work but I hurt too bad, so I go home, take a sleeping pill and the next morning go back to double shifting. I was on the clock for about 30 minutes and I could hardly stand up. My supervisor saw me and carried me off the loading belt (work at UPS). Told me to get my ass to the hospital. Well I still had not heard from my doctor about the sonagram so I drove myself home (could barely shift gears by now). I layed in bed until around 10am when my best friend called me. I was in tears. She drove to my house and put me in her car and we were off to the hospital. After 4 rectal exams and tons of xrays etc, they admitted me because I was backed up!!

Now it is Friday evening and I have had 3 enemas (1 by mouth) and of course Golightly. This was a very bad idea as I began to throw up my stool (I had never heard of this in my life) most disgusting thing I can tell you!!!

Saturday is a complete blur to me, all I know is I had the scope done and a tumor was found blocking my colon. Doctors scheduled surgery for 7am Sunday morning. My mom wanted to wait for the biopsy, but the doctor told her I would be dead in 15 hours if I did not have surgery. So now it's Sunday morning and I'm off for surgery!!!

There were 41 people in the waiting room for me when my doctor went to talk to my mom :) I felt very loved when I heard this. They removed 15 inches of my colon and the tumor, they took all the cancer they could see, and of course I received my colostomy because of all the damage the stool had caused. On Tuesday I found out I still had cancer. WOW, I was floored, thought surely I had been through enough!

I started my chemo on June 1st and have taken it pretty well so far. I can't say I'm happy about the colostomy, but I am very happy to be alive, so I will just have to learn to live with it.

To end on a good note....I am hoping for a reversal in January if the chemo can kill the remaining cancer.

Thanks for reading,

Kandy

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