50 SURVIVING BOWEL CANCER: THE LONG, HARD ROAD
Dr Philippa shares her experience of what it’s like for a doctor who gets ill
Well then, this feels rather strange… I usually I use this page to answer one of your questions, but this issue I am going to be writing about my own health issues! I hope it will help some of you going through the same thing.
I was just 39 years old in 2019 when I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which to be honest, doctor or not, took both me and my doctors by surprise! Bowel cancer is the four th commonest cancer in the UK, but the second biggest cancer killer. However, if it is picked up early, in stage 1 it has a five year sur vival rate of over 90%, but by the time it gets to stage 4 where there has been spread to other organs in the body, this 5 year sur vival drops to just one in ten people. I was diagnosed at stage 2, and over the course of 2019 I had major surger y requiring 10 days in hospital, followed by six long months of chemotherapy.
It was the first time that I had truly changed position, from sitting in the doctor’s chair to the patient’s one, and I cer tainly know which chair I prefer! I have always said that knowledge is power, indeed I write in this ver y magazine so that you can get informed and empowered about your own health. However, my medical knowledge sometimes was more of a hindrance than a help! I knew exactly what could go wrong at any point and found it ver y hard to give up control, especially when my mind would keep leaping to the next possible problem! Unfor tunately
2020 meant multiple more procedures and surgeries for me, including a huge surger y in September which required a 15 day hospital stay – 10 of which were in ICU – with my husband being allowed to visit on two occasions for an hour only, due to the pandemic. To say this was tough is a vast understatement.
Thankfully the result of that surger y is that I am now able to say that I am cancer free, and that my prognosis is excellent. Looking back over the last two years, thankful is actually my main feeling. Yes, it was difficult, horrible and hard, but I am simply so grateful that I was diagnosed early, and that my treatment has been successful. Now, finally I can begin to plan for the future again.