A November To Remember - a battle with bowel cancer

I was 30 when I first found out that I had bowel cancer, I went from being a healthy young mother of 5 to bowel cancer victim in 2 short days. I was torn from my family in the dead of night to find, after tests and a 5 hour operation that I had bowel cancer which was in fact in an advanced aggressive stages. Although bowel cancer is a very debilatating, undignified and  somewhat painful form of cancer to say the least, it is one, if caught early can indeed be treated successfully. I didn't have the luxury of treating the cancer in its early stages, and went through 18 hours of surgery including colsotomy and ieliostomy , which change your world completely. 6 months of Chemotherapy , and a  course of radiotherapy  were necessary also, as my strain of bowel cancer was so aggressive (and not contained to the bowel itself,it had actually started to grow on my pelvis) I needed every treatment available to assure my chances of  survival, which is why early detection is paramount.

Remember, I was 30 when it happened to me, although my case was very rare it still happened.

I have listed below some symptoms which can lead to early detection of this very taboo disease, remember 5 minutes of embarrassment talking to your doctor about your bottom, could mean saving you 5 hours of surgery in a hospital.  Do remember that most times changes in bowel habit can be absolutely normal, a third of us suffer from constipation and a fifth of us get rectal bleeding in any one year, but it's important to know the higher risk symptoms and of course to act on them.

A CHANGE OF BOWEL HABIT - to looser stools or going more frequently to the loo, lasting up to 6 weeks - ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IF THERE IS BLEEDING.

PERSISTANT RECTAL BLEEDING - without a reason -  no straining, piles, itching, soreness

Bleeding should be investigated over 55-60 as piles may be masking bowel cancer symptoms.

OTHER HIGH RISK SYMPTOMS INCLUDE:

*unexplained anaemia

*a lump in the tummy felt by yourself or your doctor

*persistently severe colicky abdominal pain

BUT REMEMBER - bowel symptoms are common and most people with these symptoms do not have cancer, but it is always better to be safe than sorry, take it from someone who knows!

It can feel very alarming to read about a symptom which you may be experiencing, and all to easy to bury your head in the sand and not do anything about it in the hope that it will go away. Finding the time to get it checked out can also be difficult and act as an excuse if you are at work or have a family, but if things are left, and there is something wrong,  you could potentially spend a lot longer away from your family or work, and have little control over events, which is terrifying.

Never put things off, its best to know what you face than face the unexpected. I was torn away from my family and learnt about bowel cancer the hard way, but also learnt that however hard things get you can get through.