The Journey Begins

Just 5 days before Christmas 2010 I started to experience lower abdominal pains which were quite intermittent in nature.  The day after Christmas these pains demanded attention to the degree in which I began wondering if I was going to mother another child that I wasn't aware that I was expecting.  In other words, these pains felt just like labor pains and with the same intensity.  My dear mother came to the rescue to help with the children and hauled me off to the doctor.  He sent me for an abdominal scan to make sure that my bowels were not twisted, which they were not.  I had a follow up with the doctor the following day and due to a few other measures he told me to take(I'll let you guess on these), I did feel much better, but something still felt odd. I believe he really thought that I was just bound up from eating too much stuffing on Christmas. Anyway, I then proceeded to tell him how very little I liked medical procedures, but thought if he could just order me a simple noninvasive one it could give me peace of mind.  He said ok, how about a colonoscopy?  This was not quite what I had pictured, but nevertheless agreed to it since I was due for one in just over a year anyway.  My father had colon cancer 8 years ago and since it is in my family history, I was due for this screening starting at age 40.  I continued with intermittent pain, saw a GI specialist Jan.18th, and had labs drawn and an ultrasound of my abdominal organs(which was a good report)on Jan.24th.  Then on Thursday, Jan. 27th I went for my colonoscopy.  They awoke me from a wonderful sleep, from the anesthesia of course, and immediately the doctor walked in and became the bearer of my bad news  "you have a mass in your intestines and I believe it's cancer".....and the tears began to quietly flow down my cheeks.