A woman who complained to her doctor about feeling sluggish has spoken about having a large portion of her colon removed during major surgery.
In April, Patricia McDonald, 77, of Coggeshall in north Essex, started having unexplained symptoms.
She was found to be anemic by tests, and a scan revealed that the upper part of her colon needed to be removed and tested.
She will be one of the tens of thousands of patients who will receive care on Wednesday as the NHS celebrates its 75th birthday.
At Colchester Hospital, Mrs. McDonald will undergo the procedure while under a general anesthetic.
She explained, "They are going to take a small piece of the colon and then reattach it. I am going to have the polyp or whatever is removed and tested.".
"I don't know much about robotic surgery, but it sounds incredible.
"I'm a little nervous about the surgery, but I'm really glad they found it and acted so quickly. ".
One of the hospital's three $2.15 million each surgical robots will be used by consultant surgeon Mr. Subash Vasudevan to remove a portion of Mrs. McDonald's colon.
The hospital is managed by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, one of the top robotic surgery centers in the UK.
The section will be taken out and sent to a lab for analysis after that.
Mr. Vasudevan stated, "We want to determine whether it is benign or malignant.". "In the lab, lots of things take place in the background. ".
When asked why Mrs. McDonald didn't experience any pain or discomfort, Mr. Vasudevan responded, "That is very common with colon cancers or colon lumps on the right hand side.
"People can have a slight anemia without experiencing any pain; pain is a very, very late symptom of the majority of cancers. ".
According to him, bleeding or the need to use the restroom more frequently are frequently the first indications of a problem with the lower part of the colon.
But with the upper parts, this is frequently not the case.
It takes a long time for anything to grow large enough to block, he said.
"So the typical symptoms are that patients go to their general practitioner complaining of feeling a little lethargic, have their blood tested, and discover that their hemoglobin level is low. ".
According to the trust, patients with bowel, colon, rectal, and gynecological cancers, endometriosis, urology, and knee replacements were all treated using surgical robots.
It claimed that because robotic surgery was "minimally invasive," there were "fewer complications, faster recovery, and less pain," making it "better for patients."
