On Feb 14, 2020, I had a colonoscopy, suggested by my doctor because I'd reached 50 years old, and it's the suggested screening. After the procedure, doc told me I had a polyp, and it was shaped in a way that wouldn't allow him to clip it out during the colonoscopy. He did take a biopsy, and sent to pathology. He said it was small, and would be surprised if it was cancer.
On Feb 20, 2020, I got the call. Cancer. It was a surreal moment. I was driving to a work meeting. Doc said it was cancer, and next step was surgery was to remove a section of my sigmoid colon (that's near the end of the colon, last section before the rectum).
On Mar 4, 2020, I had surgery. I had an 8 inch scar down the middle of my gut, but recovery went well. 3 weeks later, I mowed my grass (I had my wife help me get it started, Doc warned about hernia, so no major lifting/tugging on the starting cord). I was tired afterward, but overall felt good.
On Mar 13, 2020, pathology came back from surgery. Good margins on the tumor removal, but unfortunately, 1 of 14 lymph nodes removed during surgery were positive for cancer. I get to partake in the adventure of chemotherapy. Not good news.
I'll post below with technical details of the findings.
I'll do another post about chemotherapy preparations so far, then will write posts regularly as I move through my treatment cycles.
My hope here is to have a place to share my story, and maybe provide some sort of catharsis from the stress of this. I also hope to use this to participate in a community of people going through similar circumstances.
I'll also warn that I tend to be transparent about things. I'm sure there will be a bit of discussion of unpleasant things like poop, nausea, etc... I'll try to spare you the most unpleasant or irrelevant details, but bare with me if I don't always find the right balance.