At 46 I did the FIT screening test. Came back positive. My doctor referred me to gastroenterology for a colonoscopy and they found 4 small under 5mm polyps that the removed that day and 1 large one they couldn’t remove that day. Went back in a month later to have the large one removed. Pathology was in a few days later diagnosing me with Stage 1 Rectal Cancer. I was moved to Stage 3A after surgery when 1 out of the 23 lymph nodes taken had cancer cells.

I honestly didn’t feel like I had symptoms that would have been rectal cancer. I had the occasional IBS flare up that had been diagnosed 25 years earlier…so nothing out of my ordinary.

I was just lucky it was really early stages and that so far with surgery and chemo…I am currently NED.