On October 6th, 2016 I went for a colonoscopy at Kaiser Santa Rosa after blood was found in a stool sample I had provided a few weeks earlier.
I showed up, a little nervous, at the ambulatory clinic and was admitted - Jean was told that they would call her when I was ready to be picked up. They weighed me (I've gained 20lbs since my last Kaiser visit! Largely because I don't cycle any more and really haven't found a suitable replacement activity for keeping fit!), and took blood pressure and stuff and then showed me to a bed and told me to get the gown on.
A charming nurse came to complete the preliminaries - she asked if I had a problem with needles, which led to a garbled explanation of my medical history. Turns out that she is a cycle-commuter, too - I hope my horror story did not put her off. She told me that Doctor Feng who would be seeing me was great - another cyclist who had patented some water-proof shoe covers at some point.
So, I'm wheeled into the operating room and introduced to everyone (doctor, assistant and anesthetist), told to lie on my side and the next thing I know it's all over and I'm being asked if I want some apple juice.
Doctor Feng comes in to see me and explains what they found. This was the bit that I was worried about, turns out rightly! Polyps had been removed, but they also found an "ulcerated lesion" that may be cancerous. My mind basically shut down at this point! I know he also mentioned treatment options (including chemotherapy, cutting it out and radiation), but that until the tests came back from the labs, we would not know where we are going to start. I thanked him and he left.
Pretty much immediately I was joined by a male nurse (Paul?) who wanted to reassure me about survival rates - he asked me if I was religious, which was a bit concerning, and told me some stories of his cancer-surviving in-laws. I didn't really need that at this stage, my concerns are: How serious is this? What stage is the cancer at? What happens next? He asked me if I'd like him to break the news to Jean, to which I said "Yes" - I wanted her to hear it from someone who knew something about it rather than from me repeating half-remembered phrases that I have hardly taken in myself!
Went home and gratefully had some coffee and ate some food for the first time in 36 hours.
Friday morning I went to work and told Shane, my boss, about the news - asked him to keep it quiet. Thought it was only fair as I am more than likely going to need to take time of for tests/treatment/whatever, and my mental state may mean I am not 100% in the game - hope I don't live to regret the decision.
Work quiet apart from that - I googled symptoms and treatments, but until I know the stage of the cancer, there's not really any specific advice out there.
Weekend spent moping mainly - I tend to worry when I'm not busy and let my mind go to places it has no business going, so staying busy is going to be vital.
Phoned Mum and Dad on Sunday - I'd already let them know about the test results. Soo and Ipen were there, too. Mum & Soo concerned, Dad oblivious.
Emailed my GP to try to see if there was anything that I should be doing or avoiding doing - I think I confused the issue by bringing up shoulder pain meds, which was not really the issue. His answer didn't really lead anywhere.
Came to work on Monday and I'm moping around again, mainly - not really achieving anything and refreshing my email every 5 minutes in the hope of the test results arriving.
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