Zak A’s story

In January 2022. Like everyone else I couldn’t wait to welcome the new year, especially after the last two years we had all experienced. I first noticed something was not right when suddenly, I had an obvious change in my bowel movement. For some reason, after several hours of eating, I noticed I was getting a bit of a gut ache and cramping. I would rush into the bathroom to try and relieve the pain. This went on for several weeks until I couldn’t bare the discomfort and noticed some blood when wiping.

I booked an appointment to go visit my GP to discuss what I was experiencing. I had requested to do some blood tests to see if I was a celiac or possibly had Crohn’s as I couldn’t explain why I was feeling the way I was. A few days passed and the results came back clear. No allergies, no reaction to gluten, slight cholesterol but apart from that everything was perfect.

Not satisfied with the results I was booked to do an ultrasound to check my kidneys and bladder. Again, everything came back clear with no signs of any issues.

It was now mid-March and at this stage I was just trying to learn to live with the symptoms I was experiencing, however it started to get to the stage when blood was now present in my stool. I called my GP again to discuss the ongoing symptoms and without hesitation he booked me in to visit a gastroenterologist. No idea what to expect, I was promptly booked in for a colonoscopy in the following two weeks.

The day was 7 April 2022. I can still remember the gastroenterologist closing the curtains to my bed in the day hospital letting me know that he had found a tumour inside my bowel. Still waking up from my sedation I thought it was some crazy April Fool’s joke… I asked him “Do I have cancer?” and he whispered “Yes”. The tears started to roll down my face.

Without having a moment to fully absorb what was going on, I instantly received calls to let me know I was booked in for CT scans, blood tests and to find out if the cancer had spread. I was booked to have a consult with my surgeon, who would go into in-depth detail on my diagnosis and next steps.

The tumour was just over 6cm and sitting on bottom left side of my large colon called the sigmoid. I was classified with stage 3 and told that the best option for me was to go straight into surgery and have the tumour removed along with approximately 10-15cm of the colon.

Fortunately for me, I had just caught the cancer before it could have done some serious damage.

Three weeks have passed, and I am in ICU siting in my hospital bed thinking to myself “Wow” I had cancer!
Surgery was successful, my recovery went extremely well and today I am in what I’m hoping is my final phase of this cancer journey.

I met with my oncologist several weeks ago to discuss my treatment plan as I have agreed to preventative chemo. Although technically I am cancer free, cells of cancer were present in my lymph-nodes and to avoid the possibility of cancer returning I felt this was the right thing to do. Chemo bloody sucks… but I have to do this! If this is the worst part of my whole cancer experience then…Bring…It…On!! ~ Zak

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Obvious change in your bowel habits needs to be investigated to rule out bowel cancer as an underlying cause, no matter your age. Be an advocate for your own health as you know your body better than anyone.