Surgery for Colorectal Cancer: 338 Real Stories
338 stories match colorectal cancer and surgery. 274 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV Colorectal Cancer: Steve’s Survivor Story
Steve Slack was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer at age 48 after 2 years of bowel symptoms, including blood in the stool, changing bowel habits, bloating, gas-like pain, and abdominal pain. A colonoscopy on June 18, 2021, found a large tumor that…
Read this storyStage IV BRAF Colorectal Cancer: Sophie’s Survivor Story
Sophie was diagnosed with Stage IV bowel cancer in 2018 after months of unusual symptoms. Her first sign was sudden vomiting, followed later by severe anemia, stomach pain, intermittent diarrhea, and difficulty eating. Doctors initially investigated food…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Amy’s Patient Story
Amy Nicole was diagnosed with colon cancer after noticing only a small change in her stool. Initial blood work and other tests were normal, and her planned colonoscopy was delayed for about 1 year during COVID restrictions. When she finally had the…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Jessica’s Survivor Story
Jessica Dazzler was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in January 2021, soon after her 37th birthday. For about 1 year before diagnosis, she had pelvic and tailbone pain, changing bowel habits, blood in the stool, low iron, and fertility-related…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Andrea’s Survivor Story
Andrea was 32 when Stage III colorectal cancer was diagnosed, after symptoms that began while she was about 7 months pregnant. She first noticed bloody stool, lower back pain, and pressure in June 2021. During childbirth she had severe rectal pain, and…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Andrea’s Survivor Story
Andrea was 32 and working as a nurse practitioner when she was diagnosed with Stage III rectal cancer. Her first symptoms started while she was pregnant: blood in her stool, low back pain, pelvic pressure, and the constant feeling that she needed to use the…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Kristie’s Patient Story
Kristie Reimann was 45 when cramps and bowel-movement problems led her gynecologist to arrange a colonoscopy. A tumor was found, and within a week she had seen multiple specialists and completed extensive testing. A radiologist told Kristie that she had Stage…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Kyle’s Patient Story
Kyle Rising had just turned 45 when severe constipation and blood in his stool changed everything. Because his grandmother had died from colon cancer, he had been proactive: starting at 40, he completed at-home screening tests every year for 4 years. None…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Michael’s Survivor Story
Michael Holtz was diagnosed with Stage IIIB rectal cancer on March 27, 2012, 5 days after his 43rd birthday. He had experienced rectal bleeding, changes in bowel habits, and constipation or obstruction. After the colonoscopy, he and his wife were taken into…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Zykeisha’s Survivor Story
Zykeisha Law was 37 and a mother of 2 when she shared her Stage IV colorectal cancer story. Years before diagnosis, she had unexplained anemia, very low hemoglobin, and blood transfusions, including during pregnancy. Later, after her youngest child was born…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer Patient Story
Elsa Lankford became a caregiver when her wife was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at age 49. The recommended screening age had been lowered from 50 to 45 only 2 months earlier. They already feared cancer, and the diagnosis was confirmed while Elsa’s…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Savannah’s Survivor Story
Savannah Kaspar was 26 when abdominal pain, severe constipation, and bloody stools pushed her to seek answers. A colonoscopy in August found a mass in her sigmoid colon. It was first described as noncancerous, but Savannah came to MD Anderson, where imaging…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Courtney’s Survivor Story
Courtney Hare, a teacher, first noticed blood in her stool in August 2020 and immediately felt something serious was wrong. Blood work later showed she was very anemic. Even so, multiple doctors in different cities dismissed her symptoms because she was…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Justine’s Patient Story
Justine was 32 when bowel changes became impossible to ignore. In the summer of 2018, her bowel movements increased until she was going up to 20 times a day, with soft stool and blood. A colonoscopy on February 11 found a tumor, and she was diagnosed with…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer Patient Story
Liliana Bolaños’s mother had years of stomach pain and bowel problems and made repeated emergency-room visits, but no colonoscopy was performed and the mass was not identified on scans. When clinicians eventually found it, they believed it came from the…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Linda’s Patient Story
Linda Hartong was 44 when constipation and abdominal pain led to hospital testing. A CT scan, MRI, and colonoscopy resulted in a diagnosis of Stage IV colon cancer on August 11, 2023. During an attempted operation, surgeons found that the mass was connected…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Jason’s Survivor Story
Jason Randall was 35 in 2018 when severe cramping and inability to move his bowels led to scans showing Stage IV rectosigmoid colorectal cancer. He had a large tumor where the rectum and colon meet, and cancerous lesions covered about 80% of his liver. His…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Allison’s Survivor Story
Allison was 32 and living with Crohn’s disease when she noticed symptoms that felt different from her usual bowel issues. She had weight loss, severe fatigue, increased blood in her stool, and a sensation that food was getting stuck inside her. Because she…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Stephanie’s Patient Story
Stephanie McBride was 42 when she was finally referred for a colonoscopy after at least 18 months of colorectal cancer symptoms. She had repeatedly reported rectal bleeding, changes in bowel habits, narrow stools, abdominal cramping and bloating, low iron…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Chrystie’s Patient Story
Chrystie was 30 when severe pain led to hospitalization in March 2007. She was initially diagnosed with diverticulitis and spent months moving in and out of the hospital, including weeks of intravenous antibiotics at home. When she returned with severe pain…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Katie’s Patient Story
Katie LaPira was 46 when worsening bowel symptoms finally led to a colonoscopy. She had spent about 2 years feeling unwell and later developed blood in her stool and an increasing need to stay close to a bathroom. Access to colonoscopy had been delayed…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Bobbi’s Survivor Story
In June 2022, Bobbi Ratliff went to the emergency room with severe stomach cramps and vomiting. A CT scan showed that her colon was about 90% blocked, leading to hospital admission and a diagnosis of Stage IV colon cancer at age 50. Imaging also found a liver…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Cristina’s Survivor Story
Cristina Patrick underwent surgery on July 27, 2020, to remove a malignant mass from her left ovary and was initially told she had ovarian cancer. Continued gastrointestinal problems led to a colonoscopy, which found a mass in her descending colon. A colon…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Jena’s Patient Story
Jena Sica was 25 when rectal bleeding and fatigue led to a colonoscopy and a diagnosis of Stage IIIC colon cancer in 2020. Her care included biomarker testing, chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy, and surgery. Jena used her experience to emphasize…
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