Rebecca, single mom, former deputy, fights cancer

I’m 34 years old and a mother of two teenagers. After my dad died at a fairly young age from bone cancer, I always figured cancer would be in my future but I never expected it so young. After all the close calls I had in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rockets, bombs, gunshots etc and all the close calls as a cop at home I never expected ass cancer. Colon Cancer to be exact. I also never would have imagined that all the things I’ve had going on in my body over the last few years was cancer. All those weird feelings and unexplainable pains. I saw several doctors and no one could figure it out. I found out a year and a half ago my hemoglobin was a 4 and that was just normal for me. Being anemic was a normal part of life. I functioned at that level for a long time. Doctors would freak out about it and I would just shrug my shoulders.
I never really considered it to be a major problem. Funny thing is I never even really addressed it until my IUD fell out last March and I went to the doctor in Afghanistan to have it replaced. They freaked out about my hemoglobin but never went any further to find answers. I had a blood transfusion and that was that. I had my IUD replaced and I was good to go.
When I went for the dreaded female checkup last August my IUD had become displaced again and they said that it was just because I’ve had them for so long that my body was rejecting them. Their reasoning was that I had an “angry, hostile uterus”. They gave me the depo shot and that was that. No further testing.
It wasn’t until I came to North Carolina that I realized I had a bigger issue. One morning I was feeling fine, had gone to the gun range and was shooting some of the best scores I’d ever shot! We went to lunch and upon returning I became exhausted all at once. Being exhausted with low hemoglobin is normal but this was different. I was confused, weak and lost all color. So off to the emergency room we went. I figured they would admit me give me some blood and send me on my way. Boy was I wrong. An ER doctor actually listened to me and the other symptoms I had been having. He asked off the wall, out of the box questions. He told me in the ER that night that he would make sure we got answers. He ran some tests, X-rays, CT SCANS and such. Sure enough hemoglobin was low but something didn’t sit right with the doctor and my CT scans. He said my colon looked enlarged so he started asking even more random questions. I was admitted that night and of course given another blood transfusion but then they said they wanted me to have a colonoscopy because of the CT scan. It’s not normal for a 34 year old to get a colonoscopy but a couple days after being admitted they attempted a colonoscopy. This is where my life changed.
When I woke up from that procedure I had 2 doctors sitting with me, that alone is enough to make you question. I was told that almost immediately after they started the procedure they found a large mass that was blocking most of my sigmoid colon and that it was bleeding and looked cancerous. They couldn’t be sure until the biopsy came back but he seemed pretty certain. The doctor said that either way I needed surgery to remove the mass. 2 days later the doctor told me what I already felt in in my gut.. the mass was absolutely cancer.
The next day my amazing doctor went in and cut the tumor out with a large section of my sigmoid colon. With it he had taken out 24 lymph nodes. He told me that with the size of the tumor it had to have been growing there for at least 5 years. When the pathology came back, 23 lymph nodes were negative for cancer but one little guy had spread so that and the size and placement and the fact that my tumor had grown completely through the colon wall determined I was stage 3 and now needed chemo. The surgery wasn’t enough.
So now here we are. I had a portacath placed in my chest and started Chemo on January 7th. I'm about half way through now. most days I'm miserable 
Most days this still doesn’t seem real to me. I’m trying to be positive and I’m trying to be strong. I have people that depend on me. I was 23 years old when I lost my dad to cancer and he never really got to know his grandchildren. I don’t want that. I’m going to fight and I’m going to win. I will beat this and I will be around to see my grandchildren someday.
I appreciate everyone who has followed my journey and continues to do so and I appreciate all of the donations, kind words and messages. Even if you don’t donate I appreciate you sharing my story to get the word out. If you think something is wrong, get it checked. Don’t wait. I almost waited too late but with the grace of god and an amazing ER doctor, I get to come out on the other side of this a survivor.