The Cancer Survivors Club by Chris Geiger

Author:Chris Geiger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cancer, Coping with illness, survival stories, inspirational, uplifting, health, true life, courage
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2015-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

‌My Story by Mark Davies

How to Solve a Problem like my Rear

Membership: # 13

This is a story that may well sound disturbingly familiar in parts. For me, the scariest thing about being diagnosed with bowel cancer was not knowing I actually had anything wrong. My story starts on a typical day after work, with a few cold beers and a Chinese takeaway.

At the age of thirty-one, the world was my oyster, or so I thought. I had a lovely girlfriend called Rachel. I owned a small sales company and lived in a cracking apartment near Islington in North London; life was good. I was a bit of a workaholic, which led to a less than perfect lifestyle. Twelve-hour days were normal and most nights involved a couple of pints and a takeaway. Admittedly not ideal, but I was only thirty-one and allergic to cooking.

Around midnight one Saturday after an evening of drinks with colleagues, I went home clutching my favourite Chinese dish, Singapore noodles. These noodles tend to be rather spicy and had me rushing to the bathroom afterwards. No surprise there; I’m sure most of us have been in that situation before, so I thought nothing of it.

Monday morning arrived and I decided I’d throw a sickie. I’d had little sleep and my mysterious tummy rumblings had continued. I thought a quick visit to my doctor would be worthwhile, to see if perhaps I had an ulcer or something that needed treating. I did my best to describe to the doctor how I felt and said I now know what it’s like to have period pains; she didn’t laugh. Yes, I confirmed, I had felt quite tired lately, but work was really busy.

Yes, I confirmed again, there was a little blood on the toilet paper, but nothing unusual as I’d used it a lot recently. I felt like a fraudster as I didn’t actually feel that ill by the time I got to see her. I left feeling like I shouldn’t have wasted her time.

A couple of weeks later, I received a letter inviting me to see a consultant in hospital. This was not a great surprise, as my doctor had explained she’d refer me.

I attended the appointment as, at worst, it was another half day off work. The consultant was very nice and I relayed my tale of woe to her before she took her revenge, by digitally examining me. If a doctor says they are going to perform a digital examination, be warned it’s not digital as in hi-tech, it’s their finger digit.

With that over, I went back to work and thought nothing more of it. I was told it would be a couple of weeks before I got the results. Therefore, I completely forgot about dodgy takeaways, doctors and digital examinations. Although I’d forgotten, they hadn’t. Another appointment letter soon arrived, requesting I have both a colonoscopy and CT scan. I attended unaware of the exact nature of a colonoscopy. This was an investigative procedure where a camera was inserted into my rectum and pushed into my colon.

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