Candyce Brown @dycelovesu Hi my name is Candace, and I am a colonrectal cancer fighter/survivor. It all started March 2012 when I found out I was expecting my 3rd son. My pregnancy was going really great till about 17 weeks, I went in for a routine ultrasound, and the ultrasound tech called my perinatologist immediately. What they saw was crazy... It was a round circular 'thing' that covered 1
almost the whole screen, initially the doctor thought it was on my ovaries, so he decided to go ahead and schedule a laparoscopic procedure. The emotions ran high for what I was feeling, surgery? At 17 weeks? I went in and got the procedure, I was numbed from the waist down and heard the surgeons around me chatting, they couldn't find it... I felt angry, like you guys really opened me up and couldn't find the mass that was big as day on the screen... I stayed in the hospital 2
for 3 days recovering, just to get a follow up ultrasound... The mass was even bigger. This time my perinatologist ordered a MRI to see exactly where this thing was sitting, before they did anything. I proceeded to get the MRI and found out I had a mass that was sitting on my rectum, next to my sacrum. Which was posterior to my spine. This explained why I couldn't shit for months.. I thought it was the iron pills, that I had to take as a supplement or maybe it was just 3
pregnancy... After they got the results from the MRI. They put me on hospital bedrest and attempted to do an aspiration biopsy... The radiologist literally stuck a needle in my ass and drained the mass... I remember seeing the fluid in viles after it was collected and taken to pathology... Now the waiting began, my pregnancy was progressing but so was the mass... It was harder to sit, I was experiencing excruciating back pains... All the doctors did was dope me up on dilaudid 4
while I was pregnant.. 2mg every 2 hours... No more.. Definitely no less. Now I was scared that my son was going to have narcotic withdrawals. The sleepless night and a drain hanging out of my ass... This was my pregnancy lifestyle. So pathology comes back and my doctor said, I'm sorry. It seems as though the mass was malignant... MALIGNANT? Really? How in the hell can I have rectal cancer? I'm young and pregnant... No way... I couldn't grasp the 5
whole idea of this... It was just too much for me to handle... I cried and cried and asked what was next? Was my son going to be okay? My husband wanted to know staging and treatment options, but me, I just wanted out. The oncologist decided to do aspirations to keep the mass sustained, and since it was early, surgery would be after I had my son. I thought about this, like is the cancer going to spread, and like any other person would think, how long do I have before I die? So I 6
lived with this monster for awhile, I eventually gave birth, and the fun began. After I gave birth, I felt fatigue and my symptoms were crazy, no more constipation, it was the frequency to go and not feel finished, bloody stools... And PAIN PAIN PAIN. I went to the ER in February 2013 and explained my symptoms. I was then admitted, and scheduled for a colonoscopy and surgery that same week. The colonoscopy showed polyps so the cancer 7
now moved to my colon.. I was then floored... I wanted the doctors to do something and to do something NOW.... I was only 29. I had a 2 month old baby... Was I going to die from cancer? The day after the colonoscopy I was set up for surgery... Surgery was a bitch. It was supposed to be a 3 hour procedure, it turned into 8, the surgeon said he had to really fight deep to get this mass... And it was hell to get it out... Recovering was crazy, i had a bag, 8
and drains... I had post surgery illeus meaning my intestines were in shock and just stopped working... I started to have respiratory issues, I mean it was nasty!!! I ended up getting another PET scan during my stay to see if there was any trace of the disease, the oncologist came in and said that my PET scan was clean they got it all! I was overjoyed.. I mean being in the hospital for a whole month and a half on contact isolation, fighting a disease that was trying to kill you, 9
is indeed a victory!!! He said but your treatment isn't over. I ordered radiation therapy for you. For 9 weeks... Oh no?! Really? Now my body will be exposed to radiation? I was angry... But still ecstatic that I beat it!!! I ended up doing treatment and felt better... But I did have internal burns in my body from it... Radiation was terrible, I was nauseated all the time, vomiting everywhere... The oncologist said that my dosage was so high that it may even 10
damaged my ovaries?!!! Like really? All this new innovative shit, is now taking my womanhood?! I finished treatment and went on into remission....
January 2014 I was on a flight and I really started feeling rectal pressure, I am back constipated and I'm wondering what may be going on. I ended my trip and went to my doctor right away, he sent me to the hospital right away 11
for a CT scan... And guess what the mass was back and with a friend... A mass that is now formed in my uterus... I cried and cried... I wondered why my doctor didn't do an aggressive approach... I had a biopsy scheduled in Feb and the radiologist biopsied the rectal mass, and the results were again sent to pathology... I was scheduled for another PET scan.. Another rodeo, but this time I was angry.... I also found out that I'm pregnant... So it seems as 12
though that this is dĂŠjĂ vu... Another pregnancy... But double the cancer. Since the most aggressive moving mass is in my uterus, the pregnancy is having a hard time growing. I am now... Months later being seen at a world renowned cancer hospital... Surgery and treatment plans are in place.. But the pregnancy isn't going so good... My fear of what I felt almost 2 years ago is haunting me trifold. So here we go again.
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