As many of my friends both online and off now know I am facing a dramatic health struggle right now. Despite efforts to educate myself and lead a healthy life I came up against a major roadblock recently. It is a roadblock that has been affecting me for awhile now but circumstances prevented a definitive diagnosis and earlier treatment. So here is my personal struggle with health and wellness I am 28 years old and I have stage three colon cancer.
During these last few weeks my fight against this giant began when I had major abdominal surgery to remove my sigmoid colon, my appendix, and about 15 lymph nodes, which were also malignant. During this surgery the Doctors also checked my liver for cancerous lesions or tumors and thankfully none were found. The surgery went very well and other then a nasty scar from my belly button to my groin and the inability to lift anything over 5 pounds because my abdominal muscles are severed, I am already feeling good. In fact, I might almost say I feel better then before the surgery since chronic pain had plagued me for a year. That pain is gone now and the pain from my surgery will be gone soon too. And I need to feel good now because I have a bigger battle ahead and I need to regain all my strength both physical and emotional.
My battle is too continue shortly after a brief recovery period with chemotherapy treatments. For this next phase of the battle I have chosen to go to Arizona and the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea. I am also researching alternative and complimentary therapies that are available there.
All in all this is a very scary time for me. There is nothing like cancer to get you thinking about your own mortality and what would happen to your loved ones if you were to die. I have felt a wide range of emotions lately including sadness, panic, depression, and anger. I made a last ditch effort to get financial things in order for my children in case my surgery went badly and I had teary eyed discussions with my mom about my wishes for them after I was gone.
BUT this is also a hopeful time. It has to be really because when cancer has you backed against a wall you need to fight back and be unrelenting in your pursuit of health and wellness. What better wake up call is there! This whole experience has taught me not to take health for granted. The health and wellness of my whole family should always be front and center in my life because we want to be together for a long, long time. So what other pursuits can come before that?
In the future I hope to post more topics about cancer prevention and treatment because it is important for us all and yes it is especially important to me now. And if my blog has gone unattended for any length of time you all will know that I am finding my battle a little stressful at the moment but will be back again soon!
Anyway there is my health struggle confession. Please leave me a comment with your healing messages. I will need them!
