Several months ago, I noticed I was having a hard time keeping up with my wife on our morning bike rides. I assumed she was getting faster, or perhaps I was just falling out of shape. I was also unmotivated to go out to many shows, so I thought my lack of activity was contributing to me being out of shape. Figuring I just needed to exercise more, I bought some sneakers and pants, and started some nightly jogging with my wife. However, I noticed I really couldn't run at all, my legs hurt, my chest was pounding, and it was all kind of scary. I started noticing I was getting dizzier in general, and even had a hard time climbing stairs. We figured perhaps this wasn't just winter laziness, and that I should probably see a doctor.
I found a doctor in my neighborhood, and went in for a physical and some blood tests. My physical was fine, but when the tests came back, they showed I had a 5.3 hemoglobin level, far below the minimum of 12 or 13 that a healthy person should have. Since I wasn't shitting blood, and didn't have any noticeable pain, my doctor assumed that perhaps I just had a tiny tear in my intestine, and that I had slowly been leaking blood all winter. He had the same thing happen to him recently, but he's 89, and had colon cancer. I'm 37, so he never even thought that would be an option with me. Still, he ordered a colonoscopy.
The colonoscopy didn't find any tear, but instead found a 12 cm tumor. A couple days after my 37th birthday, I was getting the news that I had colon cancer. Further tests are scheduled, and two weeks later I had surgery scheduled as well, but a few days before surgery I had to be admitted early because the intestine around the tumor had become swollen, and I couldn't piss or take a dump. I was admitted Friday, May 18th. The couple of days before my pissing was slowing to a damn near stop, though I was still chugging water. I hurt so bad, when I was admitted I was given a catheter, where I immediately filled a 2000 ml bag with urine. Getting a catheter put in was no fun, but the relief was immediate.
On May 21st I underwent 90 minutes of laparoscopic colon resection, followed by 90 minutes of open surgery. They removed 3 feet of large intestine, some lymph nodes, and a tiny bit of my stomach. It was found that I had Stage 3 colon cancer. After a grand total of 11 days in the hospital, I'm finally home, and back on the Reeelapse board. I spent a while catching up on the Dutko thread! I missed it a lot!
Anyhoo, I'm slowly healing up. I'll have a gnarly scar to show off on the beach when my wife and I go to Maui. I can also say I have a new perspective on pain, as this was THE worst thing I've ever had to deal with. The six hours right after surgery were some of the worst I've ever experienced. Luckily my doc was awesome, and generous with the morphine, so the next few days were somewhat of a breeze. Sort of. I was on a clear liquid diet for all 11 days, and for five of them only drank tiny sips of water. Currently I'm working my way back up to solid foods. Slowly.
Here's a pic of me and my scar a few days after surgery:
