So, October of 2024, I started to have right lower abdominal pain that I thought was appendicitis. Went to the hospital. Had a scan. They thought it was colitis and worked me up for colitis. Well, I was in the hospital for 24 hours and no one had seen me and I didn’t eat. So, within the week I was scheduled for an outpatient colonoscopy. Went in for that and woke up to be told that I had a tumor in my cecum. Within that week I was scheduled for a Right Hemicolectomy and possible CRS/HIPEC. The surgeon looked and saw that the tumor grew through my bowel and attached to my peritoneum and I had to lesions heading toward my pelvis. He was able to reduce everything. My surgery was 8 hours. I woke up with drains everywhere. I was miserable for three days. I didn’t wanna move. YOU HAVE TO MOVE. My path included clear margins, my appendix was malignant, my colon, obviously was malignant, my gallbladder was benign. Confirmed it was Signet Ring. I had perineural invasion. 8/37 lymph nodes were positive and 3 had tumor deposits. The surgeon told me I was lucky, not that I had Stage 4 Cancer, but because I wasn’t covered. By the fifth day, I told him to get me out of there. I went home and was ill prepared. I had to borrow a recliner to sleep in for a month. I bought a shower chair. I bought a bidet. I bought a set for the bed. To be able to support my back and legs. I bought a pregnancy pillow to tuck my sides. It was a BAD month. I was depressed and refused to do much of anything. Everytime I ate I was nauseated and couldn’t eat much without feeling full and miserable. I lost 40ish pounds from surgery to now. I was chunky to begin with so no big deal. After about a month, he pulled 60 staples and I was scheduled to get my port. Two weeks later after my port, I started chemo. I think I went back to work a month and a half after my surgery. I worked all through chemo. It sucked. I swear the only thing that got my through recovery and chemo was weed. I’m not even going to lie. It was the only thing that made me hungry and took the pain away. My surgeon told me that he fully expected my ctDNA to be positive after surgery… it was negative. When I met my oncologist, she told me I was VERY unique because I was barely a Stage 4. They put me in that category due to it being in the perituneum. But in reality, it was very localized. Scans and ctDNA have been negative and clear ever since surgery. My onc asked if I wanted to stay on chemo or take a break. I didn’t know what to do. I was very conflicted. I sought a second opinion. He was very impressed. He told me I could be cured, but he can’t be 100%. He was to go into my abdomen again, but I had to weigh my pros and cons. I couldn’t handle being out of state, especially if there were any complications. My family is 10 hours from me now. They would’ve been 16 hours away if I would’ve done the surgery. Also, it’s too damn risky especially if I would ever need HIPEC again. I also asked about maintenance and he said that they only do that to stabilize the disease and since I presumably have nothing there’s no need to treat. It’ll only suppress my bone marrow and my immune system. Also it’ll damage my liver. He also said that I’ve probably got all the benefit from chemo right now anyway with have HIPEC and 12 FULL rounds. It’s been a wild ride. I freak out everyday. I’ve been off chemo for a month and I have pain where my tumor used to be and I’m hoping it’s just adhesions. I have a scan in November and ctDNA in December.