First entry, first part

Everyone’s cancer story is unique, My story is one of many but is unique in itself and in being my own. I wanted to share what it was like for me to go through it as a piece of memory for my family and friends, and as a warning about want can and can’t be expected from our medical system. Throughout my cancer story my thoughts about our medical system has changed, much for the better but in some aspects less so. I hope this will bring some insight into what I have gone through.

The story is supposed to be a full account - so I might go into details that not everyone will find interesting, but is important for me to put in writing. I consulted with other people, and with medical documents to make sure the order of events are right, and I am VERY confident about them. This is based more than just on one person’s memory, so I hope no one will try to argue it.

I originally meant for this to be published as one article, but later changed my mind and decided to break it up into a series of posts, this being the first one.

One warning though - I have colorectal cancer, so some of the details of the story might not be palatable to those who are sensitive to ‘gut’ topics.

My Cancer story starts a long time ago. Back in 2003, when I was 25 , in university in Israel I started getting stomach pains and some bleeding. After a series of tests and scans I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis - an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disorder. Basically it’s when the body’s own immune cells attack the lining of the large intestine. Typically patients go through cycles of remissions and flare ups, with months or years in between each. I was put on medication to control it and routine follow ups by a gastroenterologist. A few months later I had a really big flare up of the disease, one that landed me in the hospital for 4 months with my entire colon inflamed. The doctors then spoke of removing my colon completely. After some consideration, I decided against it. I thought I was still young, I hadn’t tried many (alternative) treatments, and that it’s worth trying to heal myself first before giving up on one of my organs. I discharged myself from the hospital and went home to try many different treatments, in addition to the medical ones to bring the inflammation down. Over the course of the next few years I was slowly successful in bringing my inflammation down. I moved to Edmonton in 2006, started a new medication as well (Remicade) and my specialist suggested a special powder that helped my good gut bacteria fight off gut inflammation which was helping and making significant improvement. By around 2009 I was in full remission. My gastroenterologist even presented me as a case study for the success of the powder in one of his conferences. As i was getting regularly tested for any flare ups, I used to believe that the one cancer I didn’t need to worry about those days was colorectal - I was getting yearly colonoscopies with special markers every year in my 30s, if anything was to pop up I would find out about it more than early enough to do something about it. I was content. I had a new family, was working, and in the following years I believed that other than occasional toilet runs, regular tests, and daily medications, I am pretty much healthy as anyone else. Years passed with very little changed. until it did.....

this is the end of the first part, i'll post more shortly. My question to you is - should I have this blog public or unlisted. Unlisted means anyone with the link can reach it but it's not searchable on search engines. Public means that anyone who google's my name will find this blog. What do you think? please post your comments on this blog article and on my question below.
Thank you and hope to hear from you soon,
Amir