My Story

With all the assholes walking this earth, why can't I get a transplant when I need one?

This past Spring, I had one of my routine colonoscopies. The doctor removed a fairly large polyp and tattooed the inside of my colon so that it could be checked in 6 months to see if he had removed all of the polyp. When the follow-up sigmoidoscopy was performed, the doctor found that the polyp had grown back. He cut it out again, vaporized the spot and took biopsies. It wasn’t until the biopsy report came back from the lab that he found out I had cancer. It is either T-1 or possibly T-2 cancer. T-1 cancer is confined to the mucosa in my colon and T-2 means that it had gone through to the sub-mucosa. I have had ulcerative colitis since I was in my early twenties. When folks with UC come down with colon cancer, the general routine is to remove the whole colon. It turns out that folks with UC who come down with cancer in one spot of their colon, have a 48% chance of having it elsewhere in the colon. I guess I’ll find out how it stands for me when they do the surgery.

I’ll be having the surgery at UNC Memorial hospital and will be staying there for about a week. The stay is usually 5-10 days, with the average being 6. Maggie Scarborough, my friend and fake sister (ask her daughter Elizabeth about that distinction) has been kind enough to let me stay at her place for a week after they release me from the hospital. For all of you who live alone, all I can say is if you don’t have any friends, develop some, because I don’t know what I would do without mine! Folks are coming out of the woodwork, volunteering to do anything I need… and am I ever needy! Just kidding. Actually, I have a hard time accepting help from folks. Those of you whom I have asked to feed the birds at my place while I’m gone or water my MANY house plants, might say something to the contrary, but it really is difficult to let folks help. Fear not! I am planning on getting over that very quickly!!!! I think that will be brought about by necessity due to the fact that I won’t be able to drive or lift anything over 8 pounds for quite a while…. When I'm at that stage, I'll be posting that on this blog. Right now, I just want to get through this dang bowel prep! ;)

I feel very lucky to have had the cancer caught so early. If the doctor hadn’t worried that he hadn’t gotten the whole polyp, it would have been two years before I went in for another checkup. Life is good, and I look forward to living it to the fullest once I get through this little bump! I'll be keeping y'all up to date at this blog.

Feel the love,

Jennie