Be loud Be Clear!!!! Symptomatic neglect!

It is bowel cancer awareness week, looking at other blogs and peoples experiences of being diagnosed a lot of people did the right thing they went to their doctor, even though they may not have been listened to at first that is where they went.....i did once and too late. Why was that?.....what would i have done differently and why did i ignore the symptoms for so long, in fact why did i never really persue a diagnosis?

• Medical history doesn't excuse symptoms.

At age 6 months old i was very poorly. I reacted badly to a pudding of fresh fruit with sugar, i dehydrated and started to have febrile fits. Mum told me that they gave me 50 50 they didn't know what was wrong but luckily i pulled through and within a short time was well enough to go home. Now my mother and father being fairly intelligent people and who both worked at hospitals in labs became too clever for my own good possibly. Mum decided in her wisdom that if it was fruit that caused my reaction then this should be limited and somehow decided that i should be given glucose to help ward off future problems and reduce sugar intake. I remember whenever i had a glass of water i had a teaspoon of glucose in it, i have tried it once later in life and it was bloody awful. I was also limited to one orange at a time as it would cause loose stools, which i guess happens with a lot of people. Anyway  it set a seed in my head that i suffered with bowel problems and unlike other people changes in bowel habit was normal for me. This continued from being a child to being an adult, i would never in a million years think it was worth bothering the doctor about my bowel habits...

What should i have done in retrospect?...I should have seen a doctor at some point to get a proper diagnosis of IBS, i was self diagnosed, i did take Joe to see the doctors for changes in bowel habit when he was about 11 and he was diagnosed with IBS but never for myself. Would it have made a difference i don't know but it is something i really should have done.

• Pain is there for a reason.

The other thing i ignored was definite pains. I would find very often that i would be out and suddenly get really gripeing colicky pains and then a sudden urge to go to the loo, oddly enough it seems to happen when i was shopping, maybe the walking around i don't know. Somehow i was always able to ride it through, i would stand in the shop or wherever i was and discretely just clench and breathe until the feeling of urgency passed. But i would have to ride the pain and pain is there for a reason. I should have gone to the doctor to explain that i would have these awful stomach pains and the urgent need to go, i didn't.... i told myself it was part and parcel of my IBS and something i just had to deal with.

• What was normal for me wasn't even normal anymore.

Has to be said that this was nearer the time i was diagnosed but still i carried on without seeking help. I found that i started to feel like i hadn't finished pooing properly that there was more, but try as i might nothing would come so i just give up. I also noticed that my stools were smaller than normal, ribbon stools that are described as a typical symptom. What i should have done is look these symptoms up on the net, but i didn't, i should have also visited my doctor but i didn't bother with that too. It was just an odd symptom. I also noticed a bit of mucus too but put it down to food not digesting, or maybe i didn't even query it.

• They wouldn't even take my blood.

I always used to be a blood doner, it was something that i had never considered not doing, Dad was a haematologist and mum a phlebotamist it was the family business :o) Nearer the time of my diagnosis the blood kept rising to the surface, i was anaemic, i must go home see the doctor and get some iron tablets. I did, but me and the doctor didn't really discuss more than a change of diet and heavy periods.

• I am never ill

Three years without a day off sick, i am if not actually physically fit, a nevertheless healthy individual. I really couldn't have anything really wrong with me and i am a really easy patient if i have to be, this drawn from my only interface with a hospital being the birth of my three boys. All went fairly swimmingly gas and air and nothing more required. So i wouldn't even think of worrying about being actually ill in anyway. If you walk around with that kind of security about your personal health you don't worry about signs and symptoms.

• The pain was never too much

I finally went to the doctor about symptoms directly related to the unknown tumour a week or so before going on holiday to Egypt, where i would eventually be in so much agony with stomach pains that i would finally call for a doctor to try and relieve the pain which would just not go away, i still suffered the rippling waves of pain in my stomach and a total inability to go to the loo at all, no matter how hard i tried all night, before calling for help in the morning by which time i was like an animal and looked at least 6 months pregnant with the way my stomach had distended from the bowel blockage.

I had spent another night in not inconsiderable pain that week before going away, but although it kept me awake all night by the morning it had gone, but i called and made an appointment anyway and called work to say that i wouldn't be going in through lack of sleep. 

The doctor felt my stomach and asked about whether it was painful to urinate, but he didn't ask me any questions about bowel cancer symptoms. If he had asked about 

Change in bowel habit TICK

Stomach Pain TICK

Anaemia TICK

Not feeling i had finished TICK

Thinner Stools TICK

Mucus TICK

What he wouldn't have got was blood in stools i never experienced this. His diagnosis was a urine infection, he gave me tablets which i never even took as i knew it wasn't this. What i should have done was push the point, this pain had kept me awake all night!! maybe he should have pushed the point too, he was also a doctor i didn't feel too comfortable with and would usually ditch in favour of someone else, i wasn't prepared i guess to pursue matters with him, another doctor i may have done and indeed another doctor may have felt the lump that must have been apparent in the colon asked some questions and got some tests sorted....but it would have ruined my holiday! :o)

So i merrily went on my way and had a holiday half from hell and half well i didn't eat a thing from the day i had the blockage as i didn't want to go through it again, for those who know how i love my food they will know how bad that pain must have been and if i had at any point bothered to question what was happening to my body and how i was feeling i would never needed to have made that decision because it would have all been done and dusted by then. As it was on landing in Gatwick from my holiday with the boys i left the plane in an ambulance and had my op 4 days later.
This picture is of me at the valley of the kings on the morning that i was taken ill, 24 hours later i would be nearly incoherant with the pain of the tumour blocking my bowel.



Me and the boys 23.8.07 The morning before i became ill 2nd day in Egypt.





























So people just need to know the symptoms, that's the main thing....you need to be armed to fight instead of bullets you need a knowledge of symptoms, it doesn't take long to learn but it could save your life, early diagnosis 90% cure!!!