At War With Cancer: The Battle Begins

Well here I am. I’ve decided to tell my story in the hope I can get some healing from it. So here goes…

It was April 15, 2019, tax day. If only paying my taxes could have been the only thing on my mind. A week earlier, I had a hospital visit for some sores on my rear end that I thought were hemorrhoids. I had been battling with them for a little over a year and nothing worked. So after experiencing excruciating pain at work, my boss sent me off to the ER, where I received a bunch of tests and was told to follow up in 2 days with a colorectal surgeon.

Now here we are on tax day and I’m sitting in this small quaint office. The doctor comes in and says “Let’s get a biopsy of this”. After the super painful biopsy, the doc comes back in. He looks at me so kindly and says “We are doing this biopsy, but Stormie, I’ve seen this many times before. You have anal cancer.” I thought my heart would drop out on the floor. I had foolishly taken my dad and my 13 year old daughter with me to the appointment so I could not freak out. I took a deep breath and said “ok, how do we fight it?”. The doc said this cancer actually responds well to chemo and radiation and I have a good chance of recovering fully.

A little secret… I’ve been battling this cancer now for 3 years so this did not work for me. And now back to the story.

Many people call their experience with cancer a journey. I will never call it that. It has been a battle and war since the day I was diagnosed, so that is what cancer is for me.

And now I’ve shared my diagnosis experience. Next entry will be the start of my first treatment, so read on.