Maryann Morgan Writes to Save a Life
I have to write to let everyone know the importance of getting yourself checked out! I’ve had a rough couple of months. I got a diagnosis that I never thought I would have. I rarely went to the doctors because I am health conscious and rarely get so much as a cold!
My story started with getting a test done in May when I had my first colonoscopy. Things just spiraled from there. I don’t want to preach to you, but I hope you can learn from mistakes. When you go to your general practitioner and they hand you scripts to see other doctors such as a dermatologist, or to get blood work, or to get a colonoscopy, you shouldn’t just take those prescriptions and throw them in a filing cabinet, which is what I did well over a year ago. When I would once in a blue moon get a physical and the doctor would tell me to go to the lab and get blood work done, I was like “Ah, I’m fine.” I always just took the papers and threw them aside. Finally in May, I did go to get a colonoscopy and I was diagnosed with colon cancer. For the past couple of months my world has been turned upside down! That was such a shocker! I had some symptoms but I kept giving them excuses like, it’s stress related, or maybe because I ate too many cherries, or some type of other excuse. I learned you shouldn’t do that. People are afraid to go to the doctors because they don’t want to hear the diagnosis.Perhaps I was afraid because my aunt passed away from colon cancer in her early 50’s. So many people feel if they ignore it, it’ll go away. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way.
Prior to surgery I was told they would have to remove 3 feet of my colon. I didn’t even know that you have 3 feet of colon! Your colon is actually 5 feet long. It’s amazing how the doctors can take it out, unravel it, throw away the bad stuff, and sew you back together so you can function as good as new.
Since I don’t normally get sick and go for operations, being in the hospital was new for me. I had a tube up my nose that connected down my throat that was inside of me for a few days. I had drains and wires coming out of my body everywhere. The hardest part for me was that my surgery happened during the pandemic which meant that I couldn’t have visitors of any kind. So there I was in the worst pain of my life, and I was there dealing with this all by myself sweatin’ it out.
I’m not writing this to preach to you, but if just one person gets my message that could be one life that I might have saved. So please, when you have something that doesn’t seem right, don’t ignore it or put it off. Go to the doctors, get your blood work done, and more importantly take the scripts and actually make an appointment with the other specialists who your GP might refer you to.
Let’s stay healthy together! – Maryann Morgan – Joel and Maryann in the Morning
