Steve DuCharme

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This is Steve and this is our introduction. At the end of July/beginning of August I noticed a sharp pain in my lower left abdomen. By the next day, I had determined that I had a hernia. A week later I had my hernia surgery. Everything went well and I started to feel better. At my 4 week checkup I was progressing well but noted that I still had lower left abdominal discomfort and I had trouble with bowel movements. The Dr. said the pain could still be from the hernia surgery and to take stool softeners. At my 6 week checkup he found it troubling that I was still in pain and ordered a CT scan. He called me with the results of the scan and said there was an abnormality. He was hoping that it was an infection that could be treated with antibiotics so he put me on some and wanted to see me the next week. 


Meanwhile I had noticed that it was harder to bend over and I got worn out quicker than normal. I also noticed that it was harder to take deep breaths and my stomach was getting harder with increased tenderness. 
The week passed and no improvement. We met with the doc and he wanted a colonoscopy done asap. After some string pulling and some push from my closest ladies we got the colonoscopy done on 10/11/18. 
The gi doctor showed us the images of a small polyp that was removed. She also showed us the picture of a large tumor that was obstructing almost my entire sigmoid colon. She could not finish the rest of the scope. My surgeon came in and wanted me admitted to the hospital for surgery the next day. 


10/12/18 Surgery was a long successful procedure. In 4 hours the doctor had removed a foot of my colon, my appendix, my entire omentum, part of my abdominal wall, a few small spots on my small intestine and 30 lymph nodes. All were sent for testing. He was able to reconnect my colon successfully so I didn’t need a temporary colostomy bag. 
Now the waiting game started and lasted for 6 days. We knew the diagnosis was more than likely not going to be great news but you can not really prepare yourself for what they tell you when the results are in. 


10/18/18 The doctors all came in our room including the oncologist. We held our breaths as he read the report stating that because the tumor had grown into the abdominal wall T4 and affected 16 of 30 lymph nodes N2 and there were spots on the omentum and small intestine M1, we were looking at Stage 4 Colon Cancer. Signet ring cell adenocarcinoma to be exact. 
Yes we had a bad day and a rough couple months, but...... this is just the beginning. We are just starting. We won’t quit, we won’t be deterred, we will beat this!!!! 


#ducharmedetermination


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