Colorectal Cancer
The story below describes how Colorectal Cancer Connections provided educational and supportive information for someone whose life has been affected by cancer. By enrolling in Colorectal Cancer Connections, you too will have access to important information that may help you take an active role in your own care.
Mary Lee, Colorectal Cancer Patient
I am thirty-five years old and have no history of cancer in my family. But I was having symptoms, constipation and bloating, and it wasn't going away. I went to a gastrointestinal specialist. Everybody kept telling me that I was young and with the proper diet, everything would work itself out. Finally the doctors did a CAT scan and said they saw something in my colon that shouldn't be there, but they didn't know what it was and needed to do surgery immediately.
The very first thing that I said when I woke up from my anesthetic was "Do I have cancer?" They told me that yes, I had Stage 4 colon cancer... and that it was serious.
A dear friend of mine was there with me and she leaned in and said, "Yes, Mary Lee, you do. But it's going to be okay and we are going to work through this."
After I had absorbed my diagnosis, the doctor and I started talking about treatment, and Colorectal Cancer Connections helped me a lot with understanding what my options were. I started treatment on September 12 of 2007, and I am currently still under treatment and I'm in remission right now.
I really feel that the Colorectal Cancer Connections program helped me by presenting information about colorectal cancer in an accessible way. Which is something you really need, you need information and support and guidance, because you're just not in the right emotional state in the beginning to know what to ask—and you have to be proactive.
I'm never going to be to same person that I was before August 7 of last year, but honestly, I think I'm a better person for it. I was always so caught up in life that I didn't take time to enjoy it, and I didn't take time to do things that are really special, like drop a note to a friend who may need the day brightened up or to stop and say hello to somebody on the street. I find myself much more alive than I ever was before.
When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade and make the best of it because that's all you've got. I'm a real person, I'm a 35-year-old woman.
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