She saw squares in her stomach that turned out to be something different and dangerous.
Hagit Angel (photo: courtesy of those photographed)
My journey starts in December 2021. Or March 2021. Depending on who you ask, the cancer or me.
We all want to look in the mirror and see the best version of ourselves.
I'm like that too, and I wanted to show the new "squares" that appeared on my stomach to the whole world one morning.
By profession, I am an assistant at Rambam Hospital. One day in our rest room, I lifted my shirt and exposed my stomach in front of my colleague. I jokingly told her that "I have squares in my stomach" and instead of laughing, she told me that "my intestines came out." Well , what does she understand.
The feeling that I might be wrong continued to weigh on me, and I went to the emergency room later that day. A week later - I was already lying on the operating table because a severe hernia was discovered in my stomach. I was surprised that I didn't recognize it myself, after all, I see patients every day and come across In this problem news for mornings.
During the sick leave, I told my attending physician that I felt pain in my stomach, which I had not experienced in my life.
As expected of him, he sent me for simple blood tests, which revealed that everything was fine, but something in the thyroid was wrong.
After an ultrasound in the area, I received the news: a benign thyroid tumor.
On May 1, 2021, I sat on the operating table again while the tumor was removed from me.
We may have gotten rid of him, but the stomach aches didn't stop.
After another consultation, I was sent for a colonoscopy.
On December 9, 2021, my surgeon informed me that another tumor was discovered, this time in the intestines, and this time it was cancerous.
What did I sin?
Less than a month later, I was already deep into chemotherapy and biological treatments.
The cancer was so advanced - stage 4, that a few months later I had to undergo a liver transplant.
Fortunately, my liver was not completely damaged.
If he had failed, I would have had to be treated with chemotherapy for the rest of my life - and who knows how long I would have survived, if at all.
From January 2022 until now, I have undergone no less than 12 treatments, 3 surgeries, transplants, complications and what not.
In September, redemption came.
The petCT results finally showed what I had been praying for for so long - I was cured of the damn cancer.
During the whole terrible period I asked myself what I had sinned.
Me, whose job is to save people's lives and giving is a supreme value for me - sick with the most terrible and tormenting disease there is.
I've come to the conclusion that it just doesn't matter.
The goal is not to dwell on the past, to think about "what if" and especially if I could have prevented it - but to fight, every morning anew.
At the beginning of 2023, I finally go back to work.
After fighting for my life, it's time to go back to fighting for the lives of others.
My biggest request to you, the readers - and I promise to remind my patients this every morning - go get checked.
A colonoscopy saved my life.
On this Hanukkah holiday, in which I mark exactly one year since the diagnosis - I celebrate my private miracle.
Who knows what could have happened if I hadn't done the test, if I hadn't insisted and didn't let up on finding the source of the pain.
The writer has recovered from colon cancer and is active in the "Injunction" association for preventing and dealing with colon cancer
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