“Every time my Nan went to the bathroom to move her bowels, she had pain and would be bleeding. This lasted for a couple of weeks to almost a month and got worse as time went on.
She put off going to see the doctor as her daughter (my Aunty) was pregnant with her first child and wanted to be there for her just in case there was any bad news. After my Aunty had her son, my Nan finally went and saw the doctor, it was in November of 1999.
With it being a Saturday appointment her local doctor in the small town of Ayr, Queensland, booked an appointment on the Monday with a specialist who performed a colonoscopy ASAP to see if they could get further details from that. She got the results back; it was high level 2 bowel cancer. Her doctor booked her in for keyhole surgery and then an operation the remove a length of the bowel which contained a large polyp, all went well.
Although it was scary, being cancer, luckily it was all contained inside the walls of the bowel and had not spread elsewhere.
She says she’s very lucky she went to the doctor when she did and didn’t leave it any later.
It will be 23 years this November since the diagnosis and procedure to remove part of her bowel. She still has to have colonoscopies every 2-5 years and gets polyps in her bowel removed each time she has a procedure. I’m thankful she’s still with us all with her turning 73 this year in August.
5 years ago, I went to the doctors as I had blood in the stool and each time I would open my bowels there would be blood in the toilet. I went to the doctor with my Mum, as it’s her Mum (my Nan) who had bowel cancer. Thankfully for me it was just a bad case of haemorrhoids.
The reason I supported Dry July is for my Nan and also to share that if there’s any signs or symptoms that people might be experiencing to go see a doctor straight away to get help or possibly diagnosed and treated. I hope everyone with bowel cancer can have a happier future with the help of specialised doctors and help with treatments.” ~ Brodie & Nan (Bev).
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