I was diagnosed with end-stage 1 beginning stage 2, Dukes 2 tumor in the leftside of my colon, when i was 31 years old, in January 2002. My first symptoms began when I was 15 years old, and I felt extreme pain on the right side of my abdomen. I visited the hospital and my doctors a LOT trying to track the pain’s cause. I was told it was everything from cramps (because, you know, I had only had my period for 5 years and didn’t know my own body -<sarcasm alert>) to an ovarian cyst, to IBD, to appendicitis (after I had 1 ft of colon removed, I was informed by the surgeon that I didn’t have an appendix - and I hadn’t had it removed! I also was born without multiple set of molars!),to hemorrhoids, to an ectopic pregnancy. My second symptom was the thin, runny feces. Then there was blood when I defecated. Then I was so exhausted, I couldn’t get out of bed - anemia. No one put it together until Dr. Braddock, who knew both my husband and my medical history very, very well, saw me and put me in the hospital for a colonoscopy.