I became an English teacher not because of my great writing. In fact, I’m a terrible writer: my verb tenses are wrong, my writing is loquacious and my grammar isn’t that stellar. But I love to read. I love gaining knowledge and understanding. I love getting swept up in a story, in the characters and in the exotic setting. (Most everything is more exotic than central Indiana. Just saying.) So to start this story of my cancer journey, we’ll start at the beginning. 
Over the summer of 2023, I began having some GI issues. I started feeling bloating and having a harder time pooping. Not a big deal, I thought. This is the new 40. I’ll try eliminating things from my diet that might be upsetting my GI track: gluten for a bit, then my collagen protein powder, then it was whey protein. Giving each of these things several weeks to see if it made a difference. Nothing did. Ok, next thing. I must have hemorrhoids (eww). But I am an active mom of 3. I regularly CrossFit and am a healthy eater. Hemorrhoids aren’t too unheard of. Meanwhile, my stomach is still bloaty and now Im seeing blood in my stools. I asked a trusted doctor friend and she recommended I immediately get into a GI. So I called the GI. But to get into the GI, even with all my symptoms, I need a recommendation from my general practitioner. I call a general practitioner. Sure, two weeks we can meet. The practitioner refers me to gastrointestinal. Finally! I call and leave a message at GI. Did not receive a call back. (Trust me, I even looked through my missed call log). Holidays come and go. I receive a letter from the GI department they have tried to contact me. Ok. I call and make an appointment for the next week. The nurse practitioner just so happens to be a daughter of a teacher I used to work with at North Central! She is a gem. With all my symptoms, a colonoscopy is scheduled. I picked the first one available: the Monday after the Super Bowl. Perfect. Ha. Can’t wait to starve watching Usher. But I guess this is why the date was available. Colonoscopy rolls around. As I am coming out of my colonoscopy drug haze, the doctor says what she found in my colonoscopy lines up with a cancer diagnosis. I have cancer. I am trying to focus so hard on what the doctor is saying but she is telling me I have cancer. It is February 12th.

EIM