Hi RLM, 

It sounds like you're feeling angry at the moment.  That's totally understandable and normal when a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. When my wife was diagnosed a few months ago I found my emotions manifesting in all sorts of different ways.  Sometimes I felt angry at the doctors because they gave us the news that she had cancer, I started to associate the cancer with them and on a subconscious level felt like it was their fault when of course rationally I knew they were trying so hard to treat her! When she had complications from her operation and was very poorly, I felt angry at them for putting her in this position, but again, I knew that really, they were doing everything in their power to make her better.

I can understand your frustration that this hasn't been picked up through the screening and that the doctor didn't pick up the symptoms sooner.  The truth is this could be for so many different reasons, cancer isn't just one disease, but around 200 different ones and whilst screening won't necessarily find everything, it does find some of the more common cancers for many people.  The symptoms of cancer are often very subtle and most often, there are no symptoms at all.  Symptoms can mimic those of many other conditions.  Please do continue to go to the screening, whilst it's mildly unpleasant and doesn't find everything, it also saves so many lives every year.

To reassure you, it is normal procedure for your Dad to be sent for scans and tests.  The doctors do this so they can get a better understanding of the extent and location of the disease and pull together a treatment plan.  

In the early diagnosis stages, it can feel like there is a lot of waiting around for tests, results and appointments, but this does start to get easier over time as you get more information about next steps.  Keep posting here and make sure you look after yourself so that you can look after your Dad.

T