So we went for the colonoscopy on Friday and we got some bad news. She has a large mass about 25 cm up from the rectum. It is cancer. We have cried and gotten mad and now we are in the “lets get this out and get to healing” phase. She had a CT scan to help determine if it has spread beyond the colon wall and it appears (preliminarily) to be contained. They will, as a precaution, remove the mass, about 6 in of colon and a sampling of the surrounding lymph nodes to biopsy…just to be certain.
Surgery is Thursday and she will be in the hospital for 5 days with a 2-3 week recovery. I guess the incision must heal completely to prevent any leaks or tears from forming and spilling waste into the body.
She is 29. She looks like a blond little super model and she has cancer.
I know that anyone can get sick but I am still trying to accept all of this.
And as referenced in my original post I do intend to take the advice of every doctor…I will be getting a colonoscopy myself very soon. I am only 30 (we are only 16 months apart in age) but the doctors are certain there must be a genetic link.
Thank you all. I am very hopeful that the surgery wil be a sucess and she will back to normal and bugging me to death in no time. Fr na tine I may just take your advice. A nice cleanse and steak dinner sound lovely
And NinetyWtI am in your neck of the woods and may take you up on a chat sometime Thank you so much.
Eek :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: (and that’s an understatement).
Here’s hoping all goes swimmingly well in 2 days and they find nothing beyond the obvious, and you have at least 60 years in which to remind your sister frequently that, by making her go see the doctor, you SAVED HER LIFE (and hey, payback is expected).
Best wishes for your sister, and good for you for helping to save her life.
Cancer runs in our family, with my mother and her sister (and my sister) having breast cancer, and two of Mother’s brothers having colon cancer, one of her brothers and a nephew with kidney cancer, a brother who died of a brain tumor. It almost seems to me there’s no point in testing for it, since it could be everywhere. But I will say that with early detection , only one of the cancers have killed anyone in her family yet. My dad was a life-long non-smoker, and he died of lung cancer.
I’m sad that your sister’s sick but happy that you urged her to visit the doctor sooner than later. I wish you sister a successful surgery and speedy recovery. Catching it sooner than later makes a huge difference.
That reminds me, I’m supposed to get a colonoscopy because it runs in my family too.
This is exactly what happened to my Dad two years back. The following story may not be one you want to hear, but he is still alive, and he is All clear. The only difference between Dad and you sister is that he went for a course of radiotherapy and Chemotherapy pre-surgery, to shrink the tumour. This is an advantage your sister has, as said “therapy” is what we blame the following on;
After his surgery, he kept getting sicker. Moron surgeons didnt know what was going on.
It became apparent that the radium had perforated his bowel, causing him to fill up with waste, poisoning him. Radiologist not to blame, surgeons not to blame, just “one of those things”. Emergency Ileostomy.
Ileostomy Not Functioning Either! Again, no-one to blame. More Emergency Surgery! This time, an emergeny jejeunostomy. I never knew the were so many ostomies.
Now, a three month hospital stay for healing, or, as we call it in Ireland, “infection catching”. Dad catches everything except smallpox. Again, “one of those things”. Ironically, he is All Clear form cancer (and remains so), causing several surgeons to declare is operation a rousing success.
After 99 nights in hospital, he’s home, a skinny little man. Now with THREE stoma’s. Many wonderful nights of crying. Leads to breakthrough “That’s a pain in my three asses” remark from the man himself, breaking months of depression deadlock.
Hey!look at that. The radium has created a fistula (so many word’s I never knew) in his urethra, which, during a particularly vicious kidney infection, bursts, filling the man with piss. Doctors prescribe painkillers to ease the aginy of what they believe is still just a kidney infection. Dad fills with piss until LITERALLY bursting in the bathroom one night, when his perenial wound splits under the pressure. Blood and piss meet me in the hallway.
Doctors devise plan to re-attached bowels together, all leading back down to the original colostomy. February gone by, a year after the last operation, he goes back in to have it corrected. Did I mention that in the interim, he needed weekly magnesium and calcium infusions due to poor absorption caused by extremly short bowel? No? Well, he did. How did he find out he needed said infusion? By being four hours away from a major heart attack, caused by said mineral deficiency, which had been diagnosed as “just tiredness”.
Bowle reattached again, leading bac down to original stoma site! Much bowel had to be dicarded, but hey! Better than none, right? Anyways, re-connected bowel joints last for three days before bursting, again filling him with crap. A fifth surgery in the space of twelve months? Why not?
Back to extremly short bowel. Doctors confident that they can re-attach again in some months. Why am I not convinced? Anyway, time for some recuperation, where he is right now, where I’ve just come home from, where I found him with his stoma bag leaking shit onto his bed and clothes, where we waited twenty minutes for a nurse to come help. Fun!
Now, thats a horror story about everything that could possibly go wrong to one person. Console yourself thusly;
Your sister didnt have radium or chemo; these weaken the body and can allow all kinds of things to happen.
The law of averages dictate that this kind of thing only happens to one in a million people, and hey, my dads gotten it out of the way for you.
You dont live in a country with the most bass-ackwards Dickensian health care system thats SUCH a fuckin joke that everyone has more or less stopped fighting the fact that it’s as bad as t is, and have accepted it as “the way things are”.
Your sister will be fine. She, and you, are both in my prayers right now.
Sending best wishes for both of you, and the rest of the family, too.