On the Colorectal Cancer Survivor

It was one of the weekends when I headed over to the surgical ward to talk to some patients, at least that was what I thought I was doing. Clerking them would pretty much put both parties in some tensed atmosphere, so I'd rather talk to them and get everything I needed before I jot them down.

So there was this cheery old chap, roughly half a century's old. And so we were chatting. Here's the story.

He was there that weekend for bowel readjustment. He had his rectum removed about 2 years ago due to rectum cancer. He recalled he had a few months of bloody stool but he only realized it when his friends commented that he slimmed down a lot. Upon discovering he had bloody stool, he still delayed in visiting the doctor. 4 months later, when he went to his doctor, he was told that it was already a stage 3 rectal cancer. Not a good prognosis really. But he wasn't devastated.

So he finally had his rectum removed, underwent radiotherapy and months of chemotherapy. Oddly enough, he was quite well tolerated with the chemotherapy. He didn't vomit. He didn't experienced any nauseous attack. He was well all the while. And he was pretty postive that he would be cured.

He didn't really think about why he got the cancer, after all he didn't know why he got the cancer in the first place. There was no past medical illnesses that could lead to the cancer, all those inflammatory bowel disease and what nots. He never smoked. He never drank. He eats normal healthy balanced meal. He didn't know of any close relatives who died of cancer. And he was very healthy, Celebrity Fitness member, a marathon runner. And he was 78. (WHAT?!)

But he triumphed through the predicaments. He emerged a champion. He was under monitoring for a year and CT scans done didn't show any metastases or recurrence. He's healthy once more! No wonder he was so jolly.

To think that colorectal cancer is one of the most common form of cancer with about 655,000 deaths worldwide annually, this man survived a stage 3 rectal cancer with the strong will and postive outlook in life. Medical miracle? Perhaps.

But I'd like to see it this way, anything could be overcome if there's a positive mindset. Confidence is the key. Determination is the solution.

If only I'm as strong...