Myth busted

Have you heard the story about a woman feeling and finding her colon cancer tumor during a wedding dress fitting? Apparently that woman is me? MYTH BUSTED. That story is FALSE. FALSE.

You can find the details surrounding my diagnosis if you go back to the beginning of my blog and June 2014. https://cartwheelscupcakescancer.blogspot.com/2014/06/ I only bring this up today because recently, and for the second time since my diagnosis, someone brought up that story to me. And all I could say was...

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I have never been able to feel any of my tumors, not my colon tumor, not my ovarian tumors, not my liver tumors, not my lung tumors and not my peritoneal cavity tumors. Any pain that I have ever felt has been from what those tumors have been doing to the tissues and organs surrounding them. The ovarian tumors (cancer that had already spread from my colon) started compressing my right ovary and that is the pain that I felt in June 2014 that sent me to the ER. I have felt pain but I have never EVER been able to actually feel any of my tumors.

Hopefully that brings an end to that myth. My only 2 dress fittings were in August 2014, two months AFTER my diagnosis, and absolutely nothing could be felt. MYTH BUSTED.

The truth is super important to me because awareness about colon cancer is something that I am now passionate about. My doctors believe that my cancer started growing 5-10 years before that ovarian tumor caused pain and sent me to the ER. If I had ever, EVER, felt any tumor or related pain before then, I would have been at the doctor that day, but that's the problem with colon cancer, by the time that it starts causing any symptoms, it is often very advanced. It is NOT like breast cancer, where feeling the tumor (a lump) is often the first sign. It is important to know your colon cancer risk factors and detection signs. Here's a good link to the American Cancer Society's information page: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer.html.

After my diagnosis and initial surgery, we jumped right into chemotherapy and tried to keep planning our wedding. It took many months for us to talk to friends and family in detail about what happened, perhaps that delay allowed for this myth and maybe others to develop. But how is it possible that almost three and a half years after my diagnosis, that this myth even exists?? I hope that if anyone reading this has any questions, that you will direct them to me rather than trust second or third hand information. The truth is super important to me and nobody has that about my cancer journey but me. Every detail about my wedding day was so perfect to me and having my dress fitting somehow connected to my cancer diagnosis is upsetting to me. I would hate for anyone to have that connection. MYTH BUSTED.