COLON CANCER
Colon cancer remains a major cause of death and disease. A clearer understanding of the causes and course of the disease is emerging. This has allowed for recommendations regarding screening for and prevention of this disease. The removal of cancer polyps helps prevent colon cancer. Early detection of colon cancer can improve the chance of a cure and overall survival.
MY STORY
When I last shared my story, I talked about what my treatment included and how it was administered. This time I'd like to share how the treatment affected me emotionally and physically. When I would get home after treatment, I had already been nauseated and vomitting for awhile. The hard part was when I started to feel hungry, and having to find a food that would stay down. I had heard that popsicles always worked. Well, for me that only lasted one month (popsicles are not my favorite thing any more). One month it was "Twinkies", and another month pieces of plain white bread. It was a different food every month. The first two months were the hardest physically. Because of all the vomitting everything hurt...from my toennails to each individual strand of hair (or so it felt like it). It seems funny to say now, but by the third month I got use to the routine. I knew when I would get sick and how long it would take to start feeling a little bit better. Emotionally, it was hard right away. I also had to deal with the emotions of never having chidren. I cried a lot then and believe me it was hard to cry and vomit at the sametime. When I started losing some of my hair that was hard. But luckily I didn't go totally bald. I just lost a lot of the length of my hair, I had gotten a wig but never had to use it. I had started dreading the following months treatment. After a week of being sick, it seemed to take another week to get rid of all the aches and pains in my body. It seemed by the time I finally felt better it was time for the next treatment. I was also getting radiation which was a totally different stressor. I'll talk more about radiation at a later date.
As I mentioned before early detection of colon cancer can improve the chance of survival. My mothers cancer was detected late, it
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