• My boyfriend, Larry and I went through hell this past summer, thanks to being victims of circumstance,,, nothing prepared us for this.

Larry had to have a colonoscopy, which didn't turn out to have we'd have hoped for. We had been through ilness before, serious illness within the family.

In 2007 his youngest son tested positive for HIV and not long after that he called the house to tell us he was in the hospital with Hepatitis C.

The next year his dad (who had cancer throughout his abdomen) suffered complications when the tumor in his lower intestines shifted causing him not to be able to get food down.

He passed away last summer.

For this reason alone he did not want to tell his mom about the cancer and didn't until a few couple weeks ago because he felt guilty about keeping it a secret from her.

Although he had his reasons,,, he knew she would just worry about it although there no longer anything to worry about, she is still going to worry about it and she is

• Here is a timeline of events

• June 16th, had a colonoscopy when the new PCP that his insurance sent him to realized he was 9 years late for one.
• June 25th - had an appointment to see his primary care physican who told him they found a maligmant tumor. But also who only had that information from the lab report (I'm guessing).
• July1st - Saw the gastreoinernalist the gut Dr.
• August 3rd - the surgery was scheduled
• August 6th He came home from the hospital

Now, when he came home from seeing his Primary Care Physician who first told him about the diagnosis, he said 'what do you know about coloncancer?'

I asked what out of either shock or wanting to believe I had just heard him wrong. When he said 'I've got colon cancer' he started to break down a little and all I could do was hold him.

Later on, we were going to get a twelve pack of mt dew and in the truck he asked me what maligment meant, he said he knew benign meant it wasn't cancer but couldn't remember what maligment was. I

I had to think about this,,, I knew the answer but how could I tell him? How could I not. I thought about saying I couldn't remember but I couldn't lie to him. I braced myself, looked at him and said maligment means it's cancerous.

I felt myself breaking down shortly after that, I fought the tears, I fought the crying for as long as I could and finally I just started crying.

The first person(besides me) he told was his best friend Ron, No, I told him. Yeah, 'cause when Ron and a mutual friend, Curtis came in, I asked Larry if he wanted me to tell them and he said 'yeah, I do.'

That week is a blur, I don't remember much, I remember going into Mayoclinic.com with intentions of looking it up. I opened my Mayo Clinic Family Health Book and flipping through the index and closing it when I came to the 'c's.

And that is not me, I am constatly looking things like that up, illnesses I read about, or hear about, I love to learn and healthcare and illnesses have always facinated me for some reason. But this I could not look up.

Now, that night he made the decision that he would not tell his family until he had more answers, he told his boss at work, some friends online, whom he games with, as well as friends he knows in life.

That whole entire week, I don't think we slept, I don't think we thought about anything else, we kind of started to say good byes esspecially after learning that colon cancer is the deadliest type of cancer in men and women!!!

We didn't actually start saying good bye but in a sense we were preparing ourselves for the worst of worst news. He told me that he wouldn't in constant pain, or depending on pain medication to not be in pain, he told me that he wouldn't be a burdon on anybody, having to have somebody put they're life on hold to take care of him around the clock.

So, the day of his follow up with Dr. Ruff, I went with him and Dr. Ruff said he was shocked, he was excited. It's rare that they find colon cancer in the early stage, stage 1. 1 1/2 cms big, laproscopic surgery where they would remove about a foot of his colon to make sure they got all the affected area and after a 3 day hospital stay (that day plus two) and other than a follow up colonscopy in a year, that was it; highly unlikely that he'd need chemo or radiation or that it would return.

I think hearing that news, that was the first time either of us, I know for me anyway, that was the first deep breath I had taken in a week.

The surgery was a sucess although he had to remove a little bit more than a foot and it was in an area that was harder to work on than he had first anicipated but at his post op follow up, Dr Ruff said unless something comes up, he would see Larry in a year.

Now, what I would like to know is why it went unnoticed for 9 years? Why is it that given his family history and him being genetically predisposed to Chrones disease (he's dad had it) and his dad had cancer throughout his abdomen and in his guts.

Colon cancer screening is supposed to be done at 50 and every 5 years after. But it is an awkward test, it is not a pleasent test to be done and that is saying it midly. Nothing is fun about it, from flushing it out to the actual test, but it is extemely important.

And a word to the wise, if u end up getting one done and ur Dr gives u a choice between pills and a liquid drink,,, TAKE THE PILLS!!! He took the liquid, which was described by the dr as tasting like salty lemonade, kind of a slightly salty lemon-lime taste. And since he doesn't like taking pills, he thought that wouldn't be too bad.