Heath, We Have A Problem!

Everyone's walk with cancer is different, and your experience may be vastly different, but here is how mine began. By the way, doesn't "my walk with cancer" or "my cancer journey" sound so charming and unassuming? Like we're a couple of old friends, out for a leisurely Sunday stroll, exchanging stories about the kids?

Anyway, toward the end of February this year, after eating some fish at Long John Silver's, I got a terrible bloated feeling, and my stomach started cramping badly. For three days it hurt to even walk straight up and I couldn't eat a bite. I simply attributed it to a bad piece of fish or something.  After that subsided, a little over a week later the same pain and bloating started again after eating pizza (okay, you health nuts, no lecturing me on my diet, or rather lack of one!).

This time, the pains were almost constant and i was praying that I would either have a bowel movement or throw up, anything to bring relief.   But, no dice! (And wouldn't THAT have been strange, throwing up dice!) Unfortunately, nothing else came out either. Finally, toward the end of March, the stomach pains were so sharp and constant I checked myself into the ER.

My local ER doctor checked me out and had me transported to Huntsville Hospital for further tests and observation. After x-rays, cat scans, and an ultrasound (oh no, was I pregnant?!), i was released after a few days with no drugs, a clean bill of health, and a diagnosis of " colitis of the colon".

Translation: "we didn't see anything obvious, we really don't know what the hell is wrong with you, it must be some kind of general inflammation. Good luck!"

I went home, bowels had moved while in the hospital, and I thought that I was back in good shape - for about a little over a week and everything was hurting again. That's when my general doctor sent me to a GI specialist (gastroenterologist, I was to learn. The first time he said I was seeing a GI specialist, I was thinking, "how in the heck is an army recruiter going to help?").

He recommended me to Dr. Dino Ferrante. How cool of a name is that?!

Doing some research on Dr. Ferrante, one thing I learned was that he moved to Alabama from somewhere up north to play hockey for the UAH Chargers, who had a very good team. I think I would have gotten the hint he was a hockey guy when he wore a goalie mask instead of a surgeon's mask. Anyway, after hearing about what was happening with me, he threw out the first "C" word that struck me with terror - "COLONOSCOPY!"