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Wellzen said:

Yeah I AM DONE

Yeah I AM DONE

So happy for you that you finished your treatments.  Being done with them IS a relief...alas, for me the relief was short lived because even after going through it all, the not knowing if it worked or not was heavy on my mind...it still is.  That's just my own negativity sneaking in.

I don't want to rain on your parade...It truly IS a cause for celebration, so go ahead, if you're up to it, do some celebrating and think your best positive thoughts.  There is nothing to be gained by not celebrating and allowing any bad thoughts in.  Worrying never did a bit of good for anyone.

It's your "Happy Dance" time, so dance your socks off!

Wisteria and Wellzen and others...read the article on ScanAnxiety (from Medscape) that I recently posted.  Scananxiety is real and very commmon among cancer patients.

Drs are just beginning to wake up to this issue!

I also thought I had hemorrhoids. I saw 5 dr's. before I was told I had squamous cell carcinoma. I want go into how I felt after seeing a surgeon and a GI dr who looked at the area and told me it was hemmoroids. I was diagnosed with stage II anal cancer and it wasn't in my lymph nodes, but if the dr's I saw at the first had diagnosed me right maybe it would have been easier on me. It took a year to be diag with anal cancer.

 I'm 5 months out of chemo and radation. I'm cancer free. I shouldn't be upset about the wrong diagnosis. If you think you need another opnion please get one and soon. There are good dr's out there. I found the best GI dr. and he has been my champion.

Best  of luck to you all. God bless you and keep you.

Sparrow1946 said:

I also thought I had

I also thought I had hemorrhoids. I saw 5 dr's. before I was told I had squamous cell carcinoma. I want go into how I felt after seeing a surgeon and a GI dr who looked at the area and told me it was hemmoroids. I was diagnosed with stage II anal cancer and it wasn't in my lymph nodes, but if the dr's I saw at the first had diagnosed me right maybe it would have been easier on me. It took a year to be diag with anal cancer.

 I'm 5 months out of chemo and radation. I'm cancer free. I shouldn't be upset about the wrong diagnosis. If you think you need another opnion please get one and soon. There are good dr's out there. I found the best GI dr. and he has been my champion.

Best  of luck to you all. God bless you and keep you.

 

Your story is so similar to many others'.  I'm sorry it took so long for you to find a doctor who diagnosed you correctly.  I went to my internist for my rectal bleeding.  She examined me and diagnosed me with a bleeding hemorrhoid.  The thing that saved me was the fact that I as overdue for my first screening colonoscopy (by 4 years!--my fault) and she referred me to a colorectal surgeon who could "take care of the hemorrhoid" and also do the colonoscopy.  The CR surgeon heard me tell of my symptoms and examined me in her office on my initial meet and greet appointment and told me that day that she was 99% sure I had anal cancer, NOT a hemorrhoid.  Two days later, she did my colonoscopy with a biopsy and cancer was confirmed.  It really is a shame that more doctors do not have better knowledge of anal cancer.  The old "it's a hemorrhoid" diagnosis continues to keep people from getting approprite and quick treatment for what is actually anal cancer.