April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and having lost relatives to this type of cancer, I am keen to raise some awareness. Through the magic of Twitter, I have come across a very brave lady named Charlotte and would like to share her story and her blog with you.
Charlotte is thirty two years old and is mummy to a beautiful little girl names Alexa. Alexa was born in January 2011 and Charlotte began suffering from very severe symptoms following her birth. These symptoms included constant exhaustion, extreme weight loss, terrible diarrhoea and severe abdominal pain. Charlotte went to her doctor time and time again over a period of six months but was constantly told the symptoms were caused by childbirth.
Charlotte eventually went back to work and managed to get a doctor to refer her for some investigations when she just couldn’t cope with the symptoms anymore. She had several blood tests, an ultrasound scan and a MRI scan, all of which showed a big area of inflammation in her colon and small bowel. This led to a diagnosis of Chrohn’s disease.
Unfortunately Charlotte ended up being rushed to A+E in early November 2011 as she had a blockage in her bowels. Charlotte remained in hospital for three days and was given steroids which seemed to reduce the inflammation. She decided to push for a colonoscopy to get a proper diagnosis.
On November 21st 2011 Charlotte went for her results alone. Her consultant gave her the life altering news that she wasn’t suffering from Crohn’s disease: she had cancer. The cancer was in her colon and a small part of her small bowel. She was booked in for surgery ASAP and had to have numerous ultrasounds and CT scans to determine the stage of her cancer and if it had spread to other parts of her body. Luckily the cancer hadn’t spread yet.
Brave Charlotte had keyhole surgery on December 12th 2011. It lasted for two hours with two more hours being spent in recovery. Amazingly Charlotte was well enough to be discharged that Friday and enjoyed Christmas at home with her family and little Alexa.
In early 2012 charlotte was told that the tumour was localised to the tumour and it hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes. The bowel surrounding the tumour was quite healthy but her specialist suggested a course of chemo to make sure the cancer was beaten.
Charlotte is now currently undergoing her fourth round of chemo at the Berkshire Cancer Centre. She seems to be handling it like a trooper although she is suffering from emotional and physical side effects. She is halfway through her chemo and hopefully soon she’ll be cancer free.
Charlotte amazes me and I look forward to her blog posts and tweets. 2011 should have been defined as the year she had her beautiful baby girl and instead cancer made sure she spent most of the year in pain. She hasn’t let that get her down and seems to be completely besotted with beautiful baby Alexa. I’m constantly astounded by her strength, her dignity and her positivity. I really wish her all the best and hope cancer leaves her alone to enjoy her life with her daughter very soon.
I think people should learn from Charlotte’s story – she knew her body well enough to know something was wrong and was brave enough to trust her intuition and push for tests and investigations. She saved her own life by doing this as I dread to think what would have happened if she had trusted the doctors who thought her symptoms were caused by childbirth. Doctors are amazing people but they are human and they do make mistakes – if you think something is wrong with you please don’t take no for an answer, push for tests! That pushiness could save your life!
Follow charlottes blog at http://charandhercancer.blogspot.co.uk/ or follow her on twitter @char_08. To learn more about bowel cancer please visit www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk
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