Thought I'd share my story, maybe it'll help just one person.

I realized that I havn't shared my story on here yet. So since I am waiting to fall asleep, I thought maybe I would This may end up in parts since I am on my 3rd go round here...or is it 4th? Anyway, no matter.
Let's go back to 2005, I'd been sick for a while, just not feeling well, a lot of stomach issues,severe stomach pain, headaches,  and I just felt like something was wrong, seriously wrong with me. Then around December 2004, my heart would just start racing out of nowhere...it scared the crap out of me. I'd been to the E.R. several times and sent home  with " there's nothing wrong, you're just a stressed out single mom" So by JAnuary 2005, I am scared to death, I have a gut feeling that I am dying, but no clue what is wrong with me. I end up in the ER due to severe stomach pain, the first dr did not want to do a CT scan because I had no insurance, my mom said she'd pay for it, so they send me to radiology, I am waiting for the results and that er dr goes home, next dr on duty, comes in, takes us over to see the CT scan and says to my mom and I (and this is verbatem) " you see that right there,that's a big turd, you're constipated, go home, take a laxative and you'll be fine" and he discharged me with some crap to drink to make me go to the bathroom. We go home, 2 days later I am so sick I can't egt out of bed, can't keep anything down, thankfully can't drink the laxative crap, I call my mom at work to take me back to ER, different dr that day, he looks at me very briefly, looks back at CT scan from 2 nights prior, calls GI dr and a surgeon and admits me asap. I was in the hospital 2 weeks before they could even do a colonoscopy or surgery. I was told I had stage 3 colon cancer. They called in an oncologist. I had a colectomy to remove a softball size tumor, and they also removed 11 lymph nodes near  that area for testing. Luckily it'd only spread to 3 of them. Once I healed from surgery, I started chemo. 3 days a week every other week for 6 months. I didn't get very sick, mainly tired and had joint and muscle pain, plus I couldn't touch or drink anything cold. My hair thinned a little, but I didn't lose much. I got it cut very short before chemo anyway, because I expected to lose it all by what the dr said.  SO let me tell you all the oopsies during this time, first the er dr was very out of line with what he said and very negligent in sending me home without doing more tests, then my surgeon stepped on my central line in my neck when he came in the room one day, tripped over it and pulled it so that it slipped the wrong way and had to be removed. (this one was in my neck-OUCH), then the port he put in he put it in incorrectly (placed the line under my collar bone) so it snapped off on my first day of treatment and shot through my heart and landed in my lung, making me have to go upstairs to radiology to have it fished out (through my groin)  and another port put in on the other side after they removed that one, then I had to go back to drs office for my treatment that day. Then once chemo was done, had that 2nd port removed, whoever it was that removed it that day, it had attached it self to my chest wall muscle, they ended up accidently leaving in a small piece of the catheter, so I ended up with MRSA, which I didn't find out until after I had a stroke driving home from work in JAnuary 2006, it was a blod clot of unknown origin, they said it could have been from my chemo drugs or from my surgery the previous January, they didn't know. Anyway I had to go to Winchester Rehab for several weeks after I got out of ICU for physical therapy and there is where I discovered I had MRSA. I still have some residual damage from the stroke, My left thumb, index finger and middle finger are a bit slow and don't always work right, I still have a crooked smile on my left. But it could be worse because I couldn't move my left arm/hand at all right after, in fact my hand was clenched shut. So...I get a few years of no cancer, but I do have 2 small seizures about 8 months apart in 2008/2009, the first happened while I was in line for hours with my kids and my son's father to see a wrestling show, so needless to say, I refused to get out of line or leave, besides both seizures were in my left arm/neck only and I was completely aware of everything the whole time, I was a little weak after but I persevered and stayed for the whole show, then went home and all was well, the second one happened one weekday morning while I was getting the kids breakfast ready before school, and I felt it coming, I told my oldest daughter that I was getting ready to have a seizure to come cut the sink off and walk me to the living room, where I sat down against the wall on the floor and told her to call 911 she did and by the time they got there, it was over, again it was my left arm/neck only.(arm seized up, neck got stuck to one side) went to er this time, saw a head dr, found out it was caused by the scar tissue misfiring. He recommended antiseizure meds, I said no way, not for 2 very minor seizures would I go on meds that if I forgot to take them could make it a more serious seizure issue. So I didn't, havn't had another one since. Summer of 2008, I was in a relationship for the first time since I'd had my youngest daughter, I'd had my tubes cut and burned after her, plus I'd had the chemo which would have had the same effect, but I started having all the symptoms and signs of pregnancy, I did some research discovered tubes can grow back...(yikes did not know that) so I thought I may be pregnant or have a tubal. Felt a knot in my upper gut, then started having severe stomach pain, ended up at er in fear of ruptured ectopic tube, nope...basketball size tumor on my ovary, IT was back!! my oncologist was called in, I was sent to UVA, had surgery again. (Complete Hysterectomy with appendix removed as well because it was inside out!) WHile I was there, they did a colonscopy before surgery, colon looked great, nothing there! So they tell me they've gotten it all again. My oncologist wants to do chemo anyway, I say okay, since the first go wasn't so bad, I agreed easily. Oh no, he used Fulfury? SOmething stronger, I was sooooo sick, I felt deep down that the chemo was gonna kill me, so what would be the point? I did 2 treatments and quit. then had my newest port removed because it was always painful? I don't know why....so I go about life, feeling pretty good, but tiring more than I used to, then summer 09 I have a ct, dr sees something on my liver, sends me for mri, still sees something, sends me for PET scan, which shows only a small spot on my liver. I go for biopsy, yep it's cancer, small area so i am again sent to UVA...I talk to surgeon, it's a small spot and located in a good area for a liver resection and while they are in there they were going to take my gall bladder too just because it made good sense. But when they go in, I guess they saw more spots, on my intestine, my diaphragm plus the one on my liver so they just closed me up and sent me home. 2 days after I get home, my incision comes unglued, so I spend the next 4 months waiting for it to heal so I can start chemo, because this chemo affects your skin and it's healing, it causes an acne like rash, yeah don't get me started, it's actually worse than acne. It's nasty. so I end up in hospital in JAnuary again because I was throwing up alot and weak, I thought I had a tummy virus, but nope, my intestines were blocked...anyway, I've posted about that so now y'all know the whole story. It's been a long haul, I've had alot of screw ups that really I should have been able to have something done about, but no...Anyway, here's my advice,,,LADIES- COLON CANCER IS NOT AN OLD MAN'S DISEASE, ANYONE CAN GET IT, IF YOU FEEL LIKE SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU DEMAND TESTS, DEMAND ANSWERS, YOU KNOW YOUR BODY BETTER THAN ANY DR. AND ALOT OF THEM DON'T LIKE TO BELIEVE THAT PATIENTS INTUITION CAN BE RIGHT, COLON CANCER IS MUCH MORE PREVALENT IN YOUNGER WOMEN THAN PEOPLE KNOW. I WAS 32 WHEN I WAS DIAGNOSED, I AM 37 NOW, AND STILL FIGHTING, I'M NOT SURE HOW MUCH LONGER I HAVE TO FIGHT, BUT I HAVE ALOT OF FIGHT LEFT IN ME.  Please, please, listen to your bodies.

Oh and please everyone remember there are alot of different types of cancer out there, it sometimes bothers me that only a select few get all the attention and fundraising done. I mean no ill will towards those programs, I just wish research and $$$$ raising and awareness would be a little more wide spread.
Good night, I think I might sleep now.
Gwen