10/28/2019
Family History is so important!
Our parents have done a great job at insuring that we knew our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins but my generation and the one under us have not done a great job at this.
I'm fortunate to know relatives beyond my 1st cousin on my dad side..... but I cant say the same for my mom side. There's so many I dont know, I mean a lot of them.
We need to make an effort on changing this. Not only gathering but also medical history.
For those of you that don't know, I was recently diagnosed with Colon Cancer and underwent surgery September 8, 2019 at age 56. I was blessed to have caught this enemy at a Stage 2 which put me in a good position to concure this bad boy. I had my colonoscopy at age 51 and was schedule to have another this year.....but before I had it I begin to have discomfort in my stomach.
For the last 4 months prior to surgery. I began having bad cramps sort of like contractions when having a baby, gas and bloating, I could even feel the mass during the later month of August. Since I never had stomach issues, I figured I had other stuff like stomach bacteria, IBS or something else other than Cancer. I mean after all, I'm in pretty good shape, my eating habits are not that bad and I still move around quite well and my bowel movements were good......so I didnt think it was nothing big but it was!
The discomfort would come and go. This one week the discomfort came and lasted an entire week which was not the norm and I was a bit nauseated which also was not the norm, so I decided to go the ER and I'm so Thankful for Gods presistance with me. Once at ER, I was seen right away and CT Scan done. Results didnt take long to come back......Deep breathe as I recieved the results of Colon Cancer and surgery needed to be done immediately to keep the mass from cutting off my blood supply. Surgery was done the following day. I spent 8 days in the hospital and thanks to Aunt Zell who told me to eat some yogurt....poop came and home I went. Since then, I've learned that on my dad side, uterus, breast, colon and prostate cancer is part of our history now and on my mom side I only know of breast cancer....it could be more but my mom side dont easily discuss these things which leaves us at a higher risk.
I say all of this because it is important that we know our medical history as well as knowing eachother. Knowing our family history will allow us to get tested earlier than recommended and save lives.
I was told I was a high risk patient, meaning my stage 2 cancer has a 50% chance of coming back and not neccesarily in the colon but may come back somewhere else. I'm blessed that I had no cancer in my lympnodes and my cells looked healthy but the machine picked up unhealthy cells possibly in the genes. Chemo is recommended and I was determined I was going to approach this new diagnosis holistically but after thoroughly researching my findings I've decided to do Chemo as well as approach it holistically with going 80% raw veggies and fruit with high Alkaline diet and only drinking and cleaning my food with filtered water. THIS IS THE NEW ME! All proven to be cancer fighting regiment.
I thought you should know because I love you and care about your well-being.
I'm a Survivor because is it so!
