A Message from Masami: Colon Cancer

This is Masami again.
As some of you might already know, I found a colon cancer as a result of colonoscopy in 2/16 and had a surgery at Enloe hospital in 3/14. As the lab result, there is no spread to any organs. I need to have a post-surgery appointment next Thursday, 3/24 to discuss the post-treatment. According to my Dr., it is less likely to have chemotherapy, rather to take pills as the post-treatment for next 5 yrs. due to my good condition. I will be able to back to normal in 2-3 weeks.

At the beginning when I found my problem, I decided not to share this news with not many except for some who are working with me closely this semester such as ArtEd and RTP committee members to ask extra helps for my work and committee duties. I just simply did not want to give you any extra worry about my medical condition. I came back to home yesterday on Thursday, 3/17.

(Oh dear how it was wonderful to stay in a hospital to continue to hear the beeping alarm everywhere such as nurse calls, but they’ve seldom shown up on time. And my neighbor, a 78 yrs senior lady, started to scream “Help me someone, help me ...” So I became her personal nurse to contact her real nurse to take care of her. Dr recommended me to stay one more night, but 3 nights experiences were good enough for me. I gently rejected his offer and decided to come home to recover in 2 weeks at my lovely home.)

Well, simply to say that everything is under control. Thank you all who worry about me. Especially, thank you to Tom and Nanette, my RTP committee members’ big helps, all review papers are already done away before the due date of 4/1 and review meetings are also scheduled well. I should not forget to say big thank you to Teresa, my ArtEd colleague and chair of Art Dept. She was with me from the early morning of surgery and waited for me for a looooong time so that it took over 5 hours. She came to check up me every day to see if I am okay and also took all my duties at the NAEA conference, Seattle as my sub to organize two panel discussions in addition to her own presentation on Saturday, 3/19 (and might be many more in the near future depending on my condition).

Lastly, I will let you know my story that the reason of my colon cancer. I was scheduled to have the colonoscopy test sometime early last year of 2010, but I was too busy to follow my schedule as you might be the same situation. If I took it last spring, my problem might has been just a polyp and did not grow as the lemon size of cancer. So please don’t wait! Take the test ASAP if you feel something wrong (or even not, if you are certain age, take it since the colon cancer is the most popular one in the US and the ratio of colon cancer is increasing with your age.)

Looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks,

Masami
A survivor from cancer