gianninaz's Journey with Colorectal (Colon) Cancer

Chemotherapy was the most toxic, barbaric and health-robbing thing I've ever been through. I hope that everyone reading this gets a colonoscopy BEFORE turning 50. After 6 months of chemo, I felt as weak as a 90-year-old. I couldn't open a pasta sauce jar or tear a sweet-n-low packet. I was too tired to even hear, much less listen. I was too tired to rest. My then-boyfriend Jim encouraged me to cook, and maybe take my mind off of the horrible levels of debilitaing tiredness of chemo. I can recommend cooking, as it requires focus, it's physical and it's rewarding on so many levels. That's how I got through it, and I wrote a book about it, called "Feeding Jim: How I Cooked My Way Through Chemotherapy". I lost a lot of my memory, which wasn't such a bad thing, lol, and I'm 90% back to my old energy levels. It's beren 6 yerars since my diagnosis and treatment, and I'm 100% cancer-free. I've come to grips with my own mortality, and I'm in the "bonus round". It's my gift from my cancer ordeal, to just live life, stop worrying, be in action, and be grateful for each day above ground. Be kind to yourself, as well as others.

Great doctor for my colon-resection. Not difficult, no complications. It was the chemo that ruined my robust (if cancer-infected) health.