Well, last week I had to have the dreaded colonoscopy. Up until this point, I had miraculously managed to avoid one…even the Gastroenterologist was impressed that after 8 months of having bowel cancer that I had skipped past this not so pleasant test.
For those of you who don’t know what this test is, for most people it would include inserting a camera up the rear end to look inside your colon. For me, as I no longer have a bottom of the traditional sense, it means going through my stoma. It actually wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be and the feeling of being both drunk and high from the sedation certainly helps! By far the worst part of a colonoscopy is the ‘prep’ the day before. You get very closely acquainted with your bathroom!
If you read my last blog, I mentioned that I was having a colonoscopy as I had been experiencing bleeding from my stoma and they wanted to rule out a genetic condition called FAP. The good news is that everything was clear apart from a small patch of inflammation just inside my stoma. So no FAP and no more surgery!
This means that chemo can start again and this Friday marks the beginning of the end. Life is beginning to look up again and everything is back on track. Roll on January 2016. If all goes to plan, I will finish chemo exactly a year after finishing chemo radiation.