Ostomy: 87 Real Stories
87 stories match ostomy. 86 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV Colorectal Cancer: Jutta’s Patient Story
Jutta Groß was 47, a single mother of 2, and already familiar with hereditary colorectal cancer risk. At 19, because of familial adenomatous polyposis and many colon polyps, her colon was removed and the small intestine was connected to the sphincter. She…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Karl’s Survivor Story
Karl Bergmann was 82 when he reflected on rectal cancer first diagnosed 23 years earlier. Blood in his stool initially seemed like hemorrhoids to him, but his wife and daughter pushed him to be examined. Colonoscopy found rectal cancer. Surgery removed the…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Johanna’s Patient Story
Johanna Vogel was a 24-year-old student living with familial adenomatous polyposis, or FAP, an inherited condition that can fill the colon with polyps and greatly increase colorectal cancer risk. Her father died young from colorectal cancer, and his illness…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Gerlinde’s Survivor Story
Gerlinde Zeigert was 59, in a long-term partnership, and a former teacher and principal when she described life after hereditary colorectal cancer. Because her brother and a cousin had developed colorectal cancer early, she had already been advised to attend…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Sylvia’s Survivor Story
Sylvia Herrmann had lived with ulcerative colitis since youth, so symptoms such as diarrhea were already part of daily life. At 39, the diarrhea became uncontrollable and led her to seek medical help. Colon cancer was found at a relatively early stage…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Gwen’s Survivor Story
Gwen Powell was 35, with 3 children under age 5, when repeated painful episodes were dismissed as constipation, gall or kidney stones, postpartum changes, or ovarian cysts. She kept going back for help, but it was hard to push for more testing while exhausted…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Stéphanie’s Patient Story
Stéphanie Lévesque learned she had Stage III colorectal cancer on February 14, 2023, when she and her partner met with the surgeon who had performed her colonoscopy on February 6. The diagnosis was difficult to absorb, but her surgeon explained that the tumor…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Kaitlin’s Patient Story
Kaitlin Van Saders first noticed bowel changes after the birth of her second son. She was going to the bathroom more often and asked a GI doctor for a colonoscopy, but at age 32, with no family history, she was denied and told to decrease stress. During…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Jessica’s Patient Story
Jessica Engle’s only early symptom was that she could not pass stool for a week. On day 7, she developed stabbing pain on the right side of her abdomen, and her daughter took her to the hospital. Doctors attempted a colonoscopy, and Jessica woke up hearing…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Karina’s Survivor Story
Karina Bandera had just turned 40 when she was told she had Stage IIIC rectal cancer. She had always considered herself healthy and kept up with yearly primary-care visits, but then noticed streaks of blood in her stool. A gastroenterologist referred her for…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Sydney’s Patient Story
Sydney Stoner had digestive issues for years before lower abdominal pain became debilitating. The pain shifted from occasional constipation to frequent heavy pain with constipation and diarrhea. She tried elimination diets and holistic doctors, but she knew…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Rebecca’s Survivor Story
Rebecca Barber had recently had a baby when she began bleeding while going to the bathroom in 2019. The bleeding worsened, and a sigmoidoscopy found a tumor while she was awake with only the doctor and a nurse present. The moment felt unreal, and she later…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Elizabeth’s Survivor Story
Elizabeth had put off her first colonoscopy for 5 years because she dreaded the preparation. When her sister needed one in 2014, Elizabeth finally scheduled her own. The procedure itself was easier than she expected, but the result was not: she was told she…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Laura’s Survivor Story
Laura Behnke noticed blood in her stool a few days before embryo implantation, but the bleeding stopped and she focused on pregnancy after IVF. It returned in her 2nd trimester, and she assumed it was hemorrhoids because pregnancy and postpartum hemorrhoids…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Catherine’s Patient Story
Catherine was 10 weeks pregnant when persistent rectal bleeding, bloating, and trouble going to the bathroom led to sigmoidoscopy. The procedure found a rectal tumor. Further CT, MRI, and biopsy workup showed Stage III rectal cancer: it had reached lymph…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Maria’s Survivor Story
Maria’s Stage IIIC rectal cancer was first mistaken for other problems. She was tired, lost about 20 pounds, and had a high pulse during a physical for maritime work. Doctors found a bladder infection that would not clear, then later suspected appendicitis…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Justine’s Patient Story
Justine was a 30-year-old kindergarten teacher when bowel changes, soft stool, and blood led her to seek answers. On February 11, 2019, a colonoscopy found a tumor, and she was staged with Stage IIIB rectal cancer. Her first plan was 5 weeks of capecitabine…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Allison’s Survivor Story
Allison was 32 and living with Crohn’s disease in remission when new symptoms felt different from anything she had experienced before. About 1.5 years earlier, she had the cleanest colonoscopy of her life. Then she began losing weight, feeling severely…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Ken’s Patient Story
Ken was 59 when Stage IV sigmoid colon cancer was found after years of intermittent bowel changes. He had loose stools, increasing bathroom frequency, and occasional blood, but no abdominal pain and no major appetite problems, so he kept hoping the symptoms…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Kristen’s Survivor Story
Kristen developed new abdominal pain and severe constipation around the end of April. At first, she wondered if food was the cause, but the episodes kept returning almost every 3 weeks. Doctors repeatedly told her it was IBS-C, even as she struggled to use…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Nathan’s Survivor Story
Nathan, a 35-year-old father of 5, had persistent heartburn, digestive problems, early fullness, exhaustion, and later severe abdominal pain. Blood work in the emergency room showed major anemia, and colonoscopy revealed colon cancer: a baseball-sized tumor…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: John’s Survivor Story
John Murray was 51 when an at-home colorectal cancer screening test came back negative. Over the following years, he had bleeding and pain that he assumed were hemorrhoids. By February 2025, at age 56, he finally scheduled a colonoscopy. The test and…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Cora’s Patient Story
Cora was preparing to start private practice as a therapist when colorectal cancer changed her life. Before diagnosis, fatigue was the first major clue. She was sleeping instead of eating, losing weight unintentionally, and repeatedly being evaluated for…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Scott’s Survivor Story
Scott Zeff was 67 when a prostate exam for urinary issues led indirectly to a rectal cancer diagnosis. He was given medication for a swollen prostate, but because he had never had a colonoscopy, he was advised to schedule one. A few months later, colonoscopy…
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