Let me introduce myself...

Hello! My name is Charlotte and I am 32 years old.  On 21st November 2011 I was diagnosed with bowel cancer; whilst I don't want this to define who I am at the moment, cancer is currently a huge part of my life.

I have been contemplating keeping a blog through my journey but there never seemed to be a right time to start it; there was always something else I needed to focus on.  I wanted to use the blog as a therapeutic tool for myself and to help other people to see that cancer isn't the death sentence that it once used to be.  I have been very lucky, the cancer I suffered from is the most treatable and the survival rates have increased significantly in the past 10 years.  I am fully aware that it is not possible for every cancer sufferer to be as positive as I have been able to be; but if my blog helps one person struggling with symptoms to get checked out then I have achieved my outcome.

I am Mummy to my beautiful little girl called Alexa.  She was one at the beginning of January and she really is my life.  In fact if it hadn't been for her my story might have been a bit different.  After giving birth to her I began to experience some very severe symptoms. I had excruciating abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weight loss and constant exhaustion.  I went to the doctors with these symptoms over a period of six months, but they were always explained by the changes to my body since childbirth. It was only once I was back at work and just couldn't cope with the symptoms that I managed to convince another doctor to refer me for some more investigations.

I had blood tests, an ultrasound and an MRI scan.  These all showed a big area of inflammation in my colon and small bowel. My specialist at the time was sure that I was suffering from Crohn's disease.  I was textbook Crohn's and I felt relieved that I had a diagnosis at last.  At the beginning of November 2011 I was rushed into A&E with a blockage in my bowel. I stayed in hospital for three days and responded well to the steroids which reduced the inflammation.  Once I was back at home I pushed for a colonoscopy to get the final diagnosis of Crohn's.

It was the 21st November that I went for the results of the colonoscopy.  I went on my own and the consultant seemed hesitant when he saw that I wasn't with my Mum for this appointment.  He sat me down and told me that he had some really bad news.  I was expecting him to say that the Crohn's was really bad and needed surgery urgently, but instead he used the 'C' word.  I had cancer in my colon and a small section of my small bowel.  I would need surgery soon to remove the tumour.  In the meantime I had ultrasounds and CT scans to make sure that there were no more tumours in my body and also to investigate lesions on my liver that were found previously.  Luckily I had no more tumours and the lesions on my liver were cysts.

I went for surgery on Monday 12th December 2011.  The operation went really well; I was in the theatre for 2 hours and in recovery for 2 hours.  The removed the tumour through keyhole; its amazing that they could have removed a large tumour and a foot of the colon through a relatively small incision through my belly button. The nurses and physiotherapists were really good at getting me moving out of my bed, the day after I took a short walk.  I felt like the hardest thing I had ever had to do, the pain was unbearable and made me realise just how much we use our stomach muscles!  Throughout the week I built up my strength and went home on the Friday.

I recovered well and managed to enjoy Christmas with my family and beautiful daughter.  In the new year I was to get the results of the investigations they did with the removed tumour.  Luckily the cancer was localised to the tumour; it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes and the bowel either side of the tumour looked healthy.  There was however one cell that looked as if it was about the leave the area and what the specialist couldn't say was whether another cell had escaped earlier and was travelling around my body.  He suggested that I think about having a course of chemotherapy just to make sure that if there was a stray cell it would be nuked!!!

So...I think this post is long enough!! I will be back to tell you how the chemotherapy is going xxx