John’s story - bowel cancer

John was 55 when he started to notice a slight bleeding from his bowel. He was really worried and made an appointment with his doctor. Although there was no history of bowel cancer in the family his father had suffered from a pre cancerous ulcer in the bowel so John had always looked out for any symptoms of bowel cancer. The doctor examined the bowel but could not find anything out of the ordinary and told him to come back if the bleeding persisted.

Over the next few months the bleeding continued intermittently. Then four months after John had gone to the doctors the bleeding started to get a lot worse. He returned to his doctor and demanded further tests. John was referred to the hospital for a colonoscopy. After the test John had to wait a few days for the results. He hoped the bleeding had been caused by bowel polyps or some other condition which would be relatively simple to treat. Unfortunately John received the news he had been dreading, he had bowel cancer.

The consultant explained to him that he had a malignant tumour and would need surgery to remove the cancer. John was given a CAT scan and an MRI scan to get an accurate picture of the tumour in the bowel and to see if the cancer had spread to any other organs. Luckily it looked like the cancer was confined to the bowel. The surgeon did warn John that because of the position of the tumour it was likely that he would have to wear a permanent colostomy bag. However the surgeon assured John he would do his best to remove all the cancer whilst leaving as much of the bowel as possible.

The surgery took place and the cancerous tumour was removed. The pathology report confirmed that the cancer had not spread to other organs. This meant John had been very lucky and did not need any further treatment after surgery. The care he received in the hospital was excellent and John felt the surgeon had really saved his life. John did need a permanent colostomy bag but the nurses at the hospital were really helpful and showed him how to get used to the bag. It was frustrating to begin with but he soon mastered the art of using the equipment and emptying the bag. Apart from the colostomy the only other evidence that John had cancer was the scar. He had a large scar across his abdomen which sometimes got itchy but eventually healed well.

Four weeks after surgery John went back to work. Luckily his job was not physically demanding and he managed to cope with the return to work. However he did find that he got very tired, much more than he used to be and after a full day at work he was exhausted. He spoke to doctor about it who reassured him that his energy would return, he just had to be patient.

John thought he was getting on with his life but a few months after the surgery he was still angry about what had happened to him. He was referred for counselling to help him come to terms with his feelings about the cancer. He was angry that he had got cancer and he was worried what would happen to his family if the cancer came back. He was the major bread winner in the family and he was worried about what they would do without him. The counsellor helped him to deal with his feelings of anger and to look forward to a positive future. John found the counselling support really helped and is now looking forward to a cancer free future with his family.