Dr. Z walked into my husband’s room in the ER and said the words that would forever change our lives. “The CAT scan showed a blockage in your colon, Mr. Jones. Considering the size of the blockage, we’re pretty certain it’s cancer.”
Ron and I looked at each other in what could only be described as absolute shock. I had taken him to the ER at midnight that night because he had been constipated for four days, resulting in a severely bloated stomach. Just a few hours earlier, I had given him a laxative, two bottles of citrate and two enemas. All this did nothing for his constipation, which by now was accompanied by intense pain that Ron described as “something trying to force its way out”. Once I heard that description, I thought the doctors would tell us he had some sort of parasite growing in his intestinal tract. Not once did we consider that the prognosis could be cancer.
My husband does have a family history of cancer. His grandmother was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer in her fifties. After much chemotherapy, she made a full recovery and lived 19 more years cancer-free before it returned and claimed her within 5 months of a second diagnosis. Ron’s sister was also diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer at 41. She opted for aggressive chemotherapy and radiation and made a full recovery. That was 12 years ago and she’s been cancer-free ever since.
As I sat in the ER with my husband, I tried to think of these people and these situations. I looked into my wonderful husband’s eyes and for the first time in our 21 years together, fear showed in his face.
Dr. Z explained that Ron would be going into surgery in about an hour, told Ron to make himself comfortable as he was prepped for surgery and then he left the room.
That was May 25, 2010, a day that we would remember as the day our lives changed forever.
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