Shianda is a stay at home mom of three. She loves reading, writing and laughing. Her great grandfather, grandmother, and two uncles, as well as herself have had colon cancer. Read her story below.
I found out I had colon cancer in 2011 after my son turned a month old. I had been to the hospital 23 times for the same reason, but no answers. One day I was crying and in pain again so I went back to the hospital the doctor that was on call that day ordered a CT Scan with Iodine and that would pinpoint anything that was wrong, and that is exactly what happened. My colon was blocked by an unknown source. I did a colonoscopy and two days later was in surgery. Later it was confirmed that I did indeed have Stage II colon cancer. I had no symptoms, no bleeding rectum. All the other things I was going through, the severe weight loss, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, fatigue, and irritability, were thought to be due to my pregnancy, since no test could be performed on me at the time. My son was born prematurely and I was so sick I thought I was going to die. Even though I was going through the worst time of my life I still found a way to smile.
I was treated by Florida Cancer Specialists and endured six and a half months of chemotherapy and radiation. During this time I had strong emotions, tons of crying, sadness, and thinking about my family moving on without me. My husband has taken over everything to allow me not to push myself so hard, my family and friends all help in any way that they can. Currently, I take nausea reducers, I also have to take Calcium vitamins and Hemax for iron, I’m more active and I limit my fat intake.
Most of what happened is a blur due to being in tons of medication. I don’t remember the surgery or most of the recovery from being on tons of medication. I would have wanted to know more about what was going on, but I got most of it from my husband’s perspective.
Now, I still feel bad most of the time, but push myself through it. Grasping the concept of having cancer came slowly, but I knew I had to press forward for my children. It still sits in the back of my mind that it may come back.
My words of wisdom for others would be to give God all the glory, because he can pull you out of anything. It will be hard, you will want to give up, but put him first and you will not believe what you will accomplish.