In 2022, Julia Devillers, who was then 50 years old, was sitting in the pool when she got up and looked at her towel.
“I bleed on her and thought: ‘Wow! This reminds me of my preteen, when I got the first menstruation,” says Columbus’s youth novelist at Today.com. “I thought: ‘This is a very dramatic period.”
For several months, Devillers experienced vorbotones bleeding, which she thought was due to irregular menstruations of perimenopause. Then he realized that the blood came from the anus and thought it was a hemorrhoid. When he went to the doctor to treat him, he received worrying news: he had anal cancer in stage 3.
“The surgeon told me: ‘It’s cancer, and we discovered that it was not only one, but two tumors,” says Devillers.
(Joe Biden faces aggressive prostate cancer: What should you know about detection?)
Fatigue and bleeding
In March 2022, Devillers noticed that he was bleeding a lot.
“I was bleeding when going to the bathroom. At first, the truth, I thought it was perimenopause,” he explains. “I didn’t know that bleeding came out of the butt. I thought I was turning my rule.”
He also felt exhausted, but thought he was due to his hustle and bustle.
“I had started feeling more fatigued, but I was also traveling for work, so I attributed it to that,” he says. “I was fatigued and scared, thinking about the reason for my bleeding.”
When Devillers noticed that blood from the anus came out, he contacted his doctor, who consulted with a gastroenterologist. They suspected that Devillers had hemorrhoids and recommended that he try a hemorrhoid cream. If their symptoms did not improve in three months, I should visit the gastroenterologist. However, the intensity of bleeding worried her and sought a solution.
“It was not continuous. Suddenly, I got a jet of blood,” he says. “I begged them to put me on the waiting list.”
(He wanted to live enough to meet his baby and succeeded during his fight against colon cancer in stage 4)
The office managed to program surgery to remove hemorrhoids to Devillers in May 2022.
“When I woke up, I was very stunned by anesthesia, but I remember that my husband was holding a hand and my doctor the other,” says Devillers.
It was then that the doctor gave him the news that Devillers had cancer. After determining that he had anal cancer in stage 3 because he had spread to lymph nodes, doctors devised a treatment plan that included intravenous chemotherapy “every two weeks”, in addition to radiotherapy and oral chemotherapy five days a week for six weeks.
“It’s really intense,” he says.
While the treatment had to last six weeks, during the third week, after his second infusion of intravenous chemotherapy, Devillers “seemed to crumble.” Before that third week, Devillers had been working, visiting friends and family and going to the doctor’s office without help.
“The colon was twisted and I had unbearable pain,” he says.
Then, their symptoms intensified.
“I started to vomit a neon green color,” he recalls. “I went to the emergency room, I fainted and, suddenly, they entered the ICU … all my system collapsed.”
Devillers spent the next five weeks in the Intensive Care Unit.
“I remember about two weeks and I think the first one passed quite well. It was lucid. He spoke,” he says. “They were trying to find out what happened to me, injected with liquids.”
For the second week, doctors noticed that their red blood cell counts had collapsed and called their children because they were not sure how long Devillers had left. They also requested palliative care.
“It was horrible for my family,” he says.
He felt his body went out.
“I saw a dark tunnel with two flashes of white light,” he says. This lasted “one day or two and felt dark. I was very depressed.”
(A mother of 10 children dies weeks after being diagnosed with “strange” cancer that affects one in a million)
He received a blood transfusion. Soon, Devillers began to feel better and “the tunnel became increasingly clear.” While he was in the ICU, he did not continue with chemotherapy. He lost about 28 pounds and was “very weak, very fragile.”
“Although I was so sick, they took me in a wheelchair to radiotherapy,” he says. “I will always be grateful to my radiologist. He told me: ‘If we stop now, I could come back. But if we continue with radiation … that is what the tumor will eliminate.”
Three months after finishing the treatment in August 2022, doctors gave him a “good cautious news”: there were no signs of cancer, but they still worried a lymph node that caused him a visible bulge in the abdomen. Six months after treatment, I was free of cancer. He took all that time to recover the forces after being in the ICU.
“I had home medical attention for months because I was connected to an intravenous road and still could not eat,” he says. “I spent a long time in bed, but I could get up and walk. It was wonderful.”
(A 27 -year -old woman was diagnosed with breast cancer. Weeks later, her 32 -year -old sister received the same diagnosis)
Anal cancer
Anal cancer differs from colorectal cancer, although they share some symptoms.
“Colorectal cancer comes from cells that cover the interior of the gastrointestinal tract, while anal cancer comes from skin cells, which are the same as the rest of the body,” explains Dr. Emily Huang, colon surgeon and straight in the Integral Oncological Center of the State University of Ohio, where Devillers received treatment. “The vast majority of anal cancers are associated with HPV.”
HPV, also known as human papillomavirus, is a common virus that is often transmitted by direct contact with the skin. It can cause six types of cancer, including anal, cervical, vaginal, vulvar, penis and throat cancer, according to previous reports of Today.com. However, these cancers can be prevented.
“We do a lot to prevent cancers associated with HPV through measures such as vaccination,” says Huang. “We perform cancers detection tests related to HPV.”
The HPV vaccine has an efficacy of 97 % in the prevention of cancers associated with the virus, since it protects people from developing six HPV high -risk strains that probably cause cancer.
“One of the things we can do is vaccinate those who are not yet vaccinated,” says Huang. “This activates the immune system to help combat infection that is the main cause of cancer.”
The symptoms of anal cancer are similar to those of colorectal cancer. Anal cancer symptoms include:
- Anal bleeding
- Pain
- A lump or mass in the anus
- Changes in intestinal habits
- Liquid feces
- Anal itch
- The treatment for anal cancer includes radiotherapy.
“The good news about anal cancer is that it is very effectively with radiotherapy, specifically with chemiorradiation,” says Huang. “Those types of skin cells are very sensitive to radiation, so most people diagnosed with anal cancer and undergo chemiorradiation are completely cured.”
(A 22 -year -old university student thought he had sinusitis. It was the first sign of leukemia)
Anal cancer is quite uncommon, although we do not know if, with the increase in cancer related to HPV, in general, this will change.
With the increase in colorectal cancer, Huang states that patients feel more comfortable talking about bleeding or intestinal changes. Even so, there is a stigma associated with anal cancer.
“Frequently, patients who come to the clinic tell me: ‘I was even ashamed to talk about this,” he says. “These annoying and slightly shameful symptoms could be easily attributed to something much simpler (such as hemorrhoids).”
Overcoming the stigma
As a writer, Devillers avoided humor rising.
“I am the author of children’s books, and people said: ‘Oh, add a fart to the book.’ Obviously, I have completely changed my attitude, both for the awareness and the black humor of the situation.
At first, he felt very embarrassed when he was diagnosed with anal cancer.
When they asked about it, he said: “Yes, I have rear cancer.” “Yes, I have anus cancer.” Anything in order not to have to say anal, and then I learned that anal cancer is different from rectum or colon cancer.
Three years have passed since his diagnosis, and the ultrasound and the blood analysis of Deviller have come normal, which is a reason for small celebration. He joined the board of directors of the HPV cancer alliance to raise awareness about the various cancers caused by the virus.
“Women suffer from it. Men suffer from it,” he says. “Everything is directly related to HPV.”
He recently published his first book since his diagnosis, “Meet Me AT Wonderland”, which deals with issues related to his stay at the ICU. Doctors asked him questions like “What do you do?” To test your lucidity. He replied that he worked at Chuck E. Cheese, a job he had at the institute when he used to use the rat costume. While telling this story to his agent, he recalled a shameful anecdote that became the basis of the tender encounter at the beginning of his latest novel.
“I entered the rest room, I took off my rat’s head and I saw a very monkey boy sitting in front of me by filling out his job application. I remember that I thought: ‘Oh, I can’t know such a boy,” he says. “It’s not that I would like the idea to occur to my next book because I am in my death bed, but it was.”
If you want to read the note in its original English version VE here.
