Well it all started sometime in 2021, I started noticing being constantly fatigued and not sleeping at night. During this time I was processing to retire from the US Coast Guard and I shared my symptoms with the CG Doctor but they didn’t seem to concerned with these symptoms. I went and got a sleep study done and they checked me for hemorrhoid’s.

After retiring from the CG they symptoms got worse as I was noticing a lot of blood in my stool. At this time I was worried but had so much other things going on and trying to find a new primary care physician, new job, and planning a wedding it was difficult. After showing symptoms for 2 years and knowing something was wrong but was scared to share it with even my new wife, I finally pushed my doctor to do something other than blood work. So my doctor set me up to get my stomach scanned in May 2023.

I got scanned on May 10th and they saw the mass. Four days later I got a colonoscopy. They confirmed it was cancer and on May 23, 2023 I was in getting my colon removed. I have not been scared of many things in my life, but I was scared of cancer.

The surgery took a lot longer than predicted and I ended up staying in the hospital a lot longer than they had predicted. After 6 months of chemo, things are looking good with the cancer and they think they got it all. The other issues that went along with the cancer process is what really hurt me. In December of 2023 after I got my 6 month scan, they found that I have an aorta aneurism as well. At the time I was 3 months into chemo and that was not easy to cope with.

Just as I was seeing light at the end of the tunnel, I get with this news.

So on to more doctors appointments, but there is nothing they can do until I am off the chemo for 12 months. On top of that, they want me to take it easy and that was pretty easy to do at the time because of the chemo was starting to fatigue me a lot. So the finally 3 months of chemo was pretty rough and I went into a dark place. Two weeks before I was due to get off chemo, my new wife decided she has had enough and left me (currently going through the divorce now).

I have been fighting with the VA for the cancer claim but they denied my claim saying it was not service related. It has been a nightmare and one of the hardest things I have ever gone through and I have been through a lot. After looking back at it all I just want to share my story and provide awareness to others.