Still doing well after nine years.

It has been awhile since I have posted here but I do like to drop by now and then to share my experience and hope with others. I was one of those people who didn’t have a colonoscopy when I turned 50 and didn’t until May, 2009 when I was 68 and only did it when I detected considerable amounts of blood in stools. I did the colonoscopy without sedation and so was wide awake when a tumor the size of an orange appeared on the monitor. My exact words to the doctor were, “That’s not good is it?” The doctor’s response wasn’t encouraging. He said he had to do a biopsy to see if it’s cancer which he was sure it was and then CT scans to see how far it had spread. Soon after I had a colon resection and the surgeon felt the tumor had gone through the wall, but then tests indicated it didn’t and I was told I was Stage IIA. I didn’t want to do chemo, but my wife and everyone insisted that I do it and so I did the Roswell Park regimen that is supposed to take 6-months but I kept having toxic reactions and the doctor kept stopping treatment and then restarting it and after one-year I was only two-thirds through and they stopped it for good. Since then I have had five colonoscopies, all without sedation, because I like to see what the doctor sees and because I never liked being sedated. I just had my most recent colonoscopy two weeks ago and the doctor removed a couple of polyps and they tested negative. So, I’m nine-years out and cancer free. I have had some skin cancer that was unrelated to the colon cancer, but that cancer was successfully removed without a problem, except for an infection. So, I’m 77 years old now and just put up a Liftetime shed on our property and  I jog three miles a day and do all kinds of other activities. So, keep your spirits up and keep fighting the good fight and remember to take life a day at a time. No one can promise us tomorrow, but as long as we have today let’s make the best of it and never, never give up. They are finding new treatements everyday and everyday people who didn't have hope are finding hope.