It's been a while. I hope I remember how to do this.

Ten months ago, on August 4, 2025, I had a large rectal mass discovered during a colonoscopy. At that time the doctor that performed the colonoscopy also took a biopsy. Two days later I got the word, it was malignant.

On August 13, I had an MRI that showed what I was up against. The tumor was 8 centimeters long (3.15 inches), anything over 5 centimeters is considered large. It was classified as as Stage 3c, an advanced cancer. There were also two or three local lymph nodes, right outside of the rectal wall, that were also suspicious looking. But luckily that was the extent of it, it hadn't spread to any organs or any other part of my body.

The first doctor I talked with after the MRI was my surgeon. After viewing the MRI results he told me because of the precarious position it was in that I would have to have surgery to remove the tumor and several lymph nodes and subsequently, a permanent colostomy. He was pretty confident of his analysis.

That was pretty much a bummer prognosis.