Kathy Johnson:  

Life A few years back when I was writing my bio for the few interested people who might be bored enough to look me up, things were going okay for me. I was separated from my husband, had two wonderful sons, who are now 28 and almost 21; I worked as a computer graphics/desktop operator at a printing company, the same company that I started working for when I moved to Florida 22 years ago with "love" in my heart. Fast forward to last July. I started having a pain in my lower right abdomen. I thought that I was either having appendicitis or pulled a muscle or something and, of course, did research on the internet, where we all go to find that our symptoms mimic the symptoms of hundreds of diseases. And assuming that it would go away, I waited for a week. Then one day I looked in the mirror and contrary to most days when I would look in the mirror and say, "well, you're holding up pretty well for your age," this day I looked in the mirror and just simply thought, "you know, you don't look so good." I went to the doctor who sent me to the hospital for scans of my abdomen and I found out that I had colon cancer. The pain was caused by the tumor pressing on my bowel. They immediately admitted me to the hospital (well, not immediately, there was the usual wait during which I left the hospital, went home, paid my electric bill and shaved my legs). After two days of more scans and fasting, they took a section of my colon and 17 lymphs nodes, with cancer found in one of them. The surgeon assured me that he got it all. I had a colonscopy afterward, which was fine, and started chemo. After 2 cycles of chemo (3 months) more scans were done and it was found that the cancer was now on my liver. I continued chemo, more scans were done and the "spot" (as they prefer to call it) had shrunk. The oncologist suggested surgery to remove that section of my liver. I had the surgery and the surgeon found more minisc...Expand for more