Diagnosed with stage 3 in April 2017. Had my power port installed second week of April so I could start infusion the next week Thursday [my infusions started Thursdays 0700, were more or less done Sunday 0900 - I was plugged into a monster IV machine for 4 hours and then it was replaced with a ‘pod of death’ as my goddaughters named it. It stayed hooked up til Sunday morning. The Thursday between infusions was bloodwork, so it was a fast in and out, didn’t need to see anybody - bp, 3 vials of blood, hop on a scale, temperature. 6 infusions then a chemo vacation with a CT scan, then 6 more infusions.
And another 2 week chemo vacation with a CT scan and consult down in radiation therapy. 2 more weeks, then 28 daily radiation sessions with an oral chemo med - about 1 week before the end I ended up in the hospital for a week, the treatment had caused an increase in diarrhea that had me pretty much turning into one of those self mummified monks, it was not responding to 12 doses of immodium washed down with a shot of kaopectate or the atropine boosted immodium because it wasn’t intense peristalsis, it was that my guts had turned into a 36 foot long road rash that never clotted so no matter how much I drank, it was pouring my interstitial fluids out as well as my gut contents. [I made hospital record - 17 minutes mouth to toilet bowl as measured by timing an undigestied wholeish piece of watermelon from that morning’s fruit salad snack.]
They had me on 2 IVs running full bore 24 hours a day for that week and I told them to just wheel me down every day for the final week of treatment. Once done, was on chemo vacation for a month, with the same bloodwork schedule. Finally seemed to finish clotting off and diarrhea stopping, they PET scanned me and nothing lit up. FOr the next 20 months I had a quarterly sigmoidoscopy with biopsy [experimental, to see if they needed to rearrange my guts or not] It came back, so 6 more chemo sessions, CT scan showed it grew this time.
Surgery scheduled for Feb 14th 2021 [our 30th wedding anniversary, yay?] where they removed my anus, rectum - basically the end 20 cm of my guts. Rerouted it out into a classic stoma, and sewed my ass shut. Effectively, check out field dressing a deer, they cored me out and sewed me back shut. Healing took effectively 3 months. Had a vaginoplasty to repair the slice they took out, have to use dialators to keep it to a usable size [well, if I want to get laid that is] and had a check up at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 month point with bloodwork to check for certain proteins. Last May I was doing a breast self check, found a lump, had it biopsied and it was cancerous [11 mm] had it and the powerport removed, radiation and oral only chemo. The tumor was not related to my ass at all, which was a relief. I am now on oral chemo [letrozole] for 5 years, and an annual colonoscopy, annual mammogram and quarterly bloodwork as I am considered very high risk.
Ask me anything, my stoma is named P’tit Joey after Le Petomane because the week post op I spent in hospital and for another few weeks after that I was on tons of antibiotics and it made me fart a whole lot. I was also on a blood thinner injectible for a month post op so I had to avoid leafy greens and injuring myself [boy did I bruise if I even lightly hit something!] I have a visual of the tumor pre-op, we named it Lil Donny Trumpkin because as my roomie pointed out it looked like a goblin and was a pain in my ass. [if asked, can provide non-obscene pix of my power port, my stoma and Lil Donnie if asked and someone tells me how to put in the click through deal.]
