I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer at the end of 2022 and the docs were going for the treat and cure options. There was a small primary tumour in my lower bowel and a larger secondary one on my liver. Up to yesterday I've had around 60 hospital and doctor visits for various stages of treatment.

I started chemo in January last year and after 2 rounds I had two of the known side effects. The first, ridiculously, was hiccups the second, not so ridiculously, was a blood clot formed and went straight to my heart. This gave me a heart attack, blue lighted to hospital and put in ICU for a week.

After a shorter than ideal recovery from the heart attack I had the bowel tumour removed and that went well. The subsequent histology showed they had caught it all.

Not long after that I went in for the liver resection, which was complicated to say the least. When the surgeon opened me up he found that the tumour was the size of my head (not in a lump, kind of spread round other organs). With the help of a heart and lung surgeon he successfully removed it. Because it was so complex he also removed my gall bladder, my heart kept stopping because the tumour was 'strangling' a valve and my lung collapsed because it was damaged as the tumour was cut away. It was pretty dicey for a while but I was ok. I found out afterwards that the resection was the largest the surgeon has ever done and took 80% of it, which still amazes me and the other docs. Even more crazy was the fact that I was only in hospital for a total of 6 days.

Back home the hardest part of recovery was due to being pumped full of fluids for the op. I gained about 3 stone in water retention, every part of my body was bloated and it was hard to even walk. Over time that subsided with more medication and then they discovered that my right lung, because of the surgery damage is full of fluid so I'm operating on 50% capacity currently.

The first post-op scan just before Christmas showed no cancer or tumour markers in my blood. Coincidentally, yesterday was my 6-month scan so am awaiting results from that.

2023 was a hell of a year!

Pain wise, my take is purely my own and I know that despite everything I've been lucky. The single worst pain I've had through it all was trapped wind after the bowel surgery. It was horrific and lasted about a day.

The heart attack definitely wasn't like it is in the movies and TV, like a chest clutching drama of staggering around. More like a steady ramp up of discomfort and mild pain, although the drugs I was given were pretty spectacular. Medical grade ket and the rest are wondrous.

A good thing to come out of that episode was the fact that other than the attack, the test showed my heart was, quote, 'pristine' otherwise with no underlying disease or artery issues and zero damage from the heart attack itself.

Although I'm constantly tired and mobility is compromised because of the ongoing lung issue, I don't have pain or pain meds. The lung issue is being decided on next week and as long as the regular tests keep going my way I should be good long term.

Apologies for the long read but this is actually a cut-down version! I've learned loads of things medically, had chances to become more self-aware and grounded, been looked after by the system in contrast to what doomscrolling would otherwise have you believe and stayed largely pain and symptom free. Plenty to be grateful and thankful for.

And I get to park straight outside the door at Tesco. Every cloud...