Melvin Fernandes
Patient/Survivor
Rectal
Age at Diagnosis: 42
“Do not let fear prevent you. The disease can progress quickly and the sooner you face it, the more preventable the disease is. Facing momentary discomfort allows prevention and trumps the side effects and results of treating cancer”
My older brother is a GI doctor and during a trip to watch the Ryder Cup in Chaska, Minnesota in 2016, he told me that something about my recent weight loss and lack of appetite had irked him. Shortly after I got home I was having trouble getting screened for colon cancer, so just before Thanksgiving of that year, I went to Texas, where one of my brothers partners did a colonoscopy and found a 6cm mass.
By early December, I was in treatment, undergoing six weeks of radiation. In March 2017, I had a total pelvic exenteration and ended up with a permanent colostomy and an ostomy in place of my bladder. After I healed up, I did six months of adjuvant chemotherapy. I have since had two liver resections and radiation to my lungs.
