(Some edits were made after the original post to correct some terminology and expand on the concept of an ostomy)

So I have cancer. That is my new reality and of course that sucks, but that does not matter. The reality and facts are what they are so now it is time to deal with it.

There is much to know about cancer, but probably the most important thing is that we have given so much power to that word that it does not provide any useful information itself. You can look it up but essentially cancer describes any cell growths that do not follow the intended blueprint from the original DNA. See how useless that is. It makes you treat all cancer in the most generic of terms and does not get you closer to understanding anything.

Since this is my blog and my story, I get to be more specific. I have stage 4 Colon cancer. It likely started 18 to 24 months ago in my colon and over the last 2 years grew to create a blockage in my transverse large intestine, and grew out the colon to the Duodenum as well as having some cells just go off and start to colonize my liver.

Wow, stage 4. That sounds really scary. The thing is, that just means that the cancer has jumped ship and started spreading to another organ. While that is still a scary thing, it is not the end of the world, just a more complicated scenario. You see, if you catch it in stage 1, it is much more easily managed. By stage 4 we now need to plan an all out war on the bastards.

This is where it starts to get interesting. Tremendous research and advances have been made in cancer treatment, thanks to lots of fund raising and the advances in our technological base. Instead of just blindly flooding the system or area with poison, they can now evaluate the DNA of the cancer cells themselves and target a specific poison that should be much more effective. I meet with the Oncologist on Tuesday, so for now my knowledge here is pretty much what I can get from google searches, but in summary this is not a death sentence. It will take years and it will suck along the way, but this is the beginning not the end.

My symptom that brought me to the hospital was the blockage caused by the cancer which prevented me from passing any food waste through to the system. The blockage became extreme enough that I essentially was on a liquid diet.

I just turned 50. I had already started my physical and was scheduling my first colonoscopy when my health care provider ordered x-rays to see if we could figure out what was wrong and then promptly sent me to the ER to be admitted.

A CT scan was conducted along with ultra sound to try to assess the condition and following the analysis of those results, surgery was scheduled with the intent of removing what looked like a blockage in the transverse large intestine after which Chemo therapy would be used to address the colony on the liver. During the surgery the surgeon was able to visually see that the tumor was bigger than detected by the scans and instead of the original plan, he went to plan B and set me up with an ileostomy to allow me to eat and process food while the Chemo treatments are being done.  For those who don’t know (and who would), an ileostomy is when the small intestine (or part of it in the case of a loop ileostomy) is routed to the skin, bypassing the large intestine.  A loop ileostomy is done when there is a great expectation of reversing it later.  In the case of a loop, the small intestine is not severed from the large intestine.  It is more like if you take a hose and bend it into a U, then puncture the center of that U bend.  The waste passes out of that penetration because it is the path of least resistance.  When the ileostomy is not expected to be reversed, or more precisely when the large intestine is not going to function or needs to be removed, the small intestine would be severed from the large and that cut end is routed out.  Either way, the part that now penetrates the belly is called a stoma. The ileostomy differs from the colostomy due to location.  The colostomy is done after the large intestine, when the colon needs to be bypassed.  The two processes end up with similar results, but since the large intestine is responsible for pulling the water out of the waste, the effluent from an ileostomy tends to be more fluid, and having one means needing to drink more water to stay hydrated.

So here I sit now with my new bag recovering from the surgery and waiting to see what plan the Onclogist has for fixing me and getting me back to myself.