New to this and only 31

Hello all! I am a 31 year old Mom to three little girls- 8, 4 and 5 months. I have been through the cancer battle with my Mom several years ago that she won. Well after having my infant I had rectal bleeding for 4 months, all along thinking I had hemmorroids. When they didn't go away I went to a dr who referred me to a gastroendicrologist (sp). From there we did a colonoscopy which came back with a biopsy from the perimeter of the 'mass' with trasitional cells- from the final stages of dysplasia into stage 1. He referred me to an oncologist  to do the EUS for further results and to an oncological surgeon. They did the EUS with biopsies yesterday and are waiting to get the path reports back (should be tomorrow). Due to the size of the tumor and the location, just inside the rectum, touching the anus the surgeon, who is 4 hours from my home, has recommended 5 days of radiation and 1 day a week chemo for 5 or 6 weeks, then surgery, then another round of chemo. He has recommended that I do the treatments where he is since it is a comprehensive facility- one of the larger in the Southeast (UAB). I am very apprehensive about relocating my family for 6 weeks to do the treatments, but am fearful of what might happen if I choose to have them done locally as opposed to there. I know he will be the Dr. to do the surgery. We know there will be a colostomy after the surgery, possibly temporary, but 50% chance of permenant. I guess I need your thoughts, insight and experience since I have none in this area!! Thanks for listening and I look forward to hearing your input!

I am so sorry that you are facing such a trauma and a lot of other issues. If you have a good doctor who is kind and you can trust that is a big issue. Many cancer doctors really do not care and a lot of them have no clue as to what you are suffering. If you can manage to go to the facility it probably would work out better for you. It seems as if it is reasonably early and hopefully after the radiation and chemo and surgery things will improve.

However I urge you to look at adding alternative therapies like diet, cod liver oil, epicor caps for immune system, fresh vege juices, get away from sugar and sodas and fast food, Reservratol is a great benefit, Vit C, I offer this as your immune system will be compromised with treatment and you need all your strength to get through it. cancer compass has many patients who post natural healing so you might want to go to the search area and put in alternative healing therapies. There is a lady named Shemay who posts many great things. another link ishttp://margaret.healthblogs.org/

All these natural things help keep you in shape. I wish you well and hope someone else can answer you questions as I do not know that facility (by its initials) all the best. May God speed your recovery. MMS

On 7/1/2009 tmw0301 wrote:

Hello all! I am a 31 year old Mom to three little girls- 8, 4 and 5 months. I have been through the cancer battle with my Mom several years ago that she won. Well after having my infant I had rectal bleeding for 4 months, all along thinking I had hemmorroids. When they didn't go away I went to a dr who referred me to a gastroendicrologist (sp). From there we did a colonoscopy which came back with a biopsy from the perimeter of the 'mass' with trasitional cells- from the final stages of dysplasia into stage 1. He referred me to an oncologist  to do the EUS for further results and to an oncological surgeon. They did the EUS with biopsies yesterday and are waiting to get the path reports back (should be tomorrow). Due to the size of the tumor and the location, just inside the rectum, touching the anus the surgeon, who is 4 hours from my home, has recommended 5 days of radiation and 1 day a week chemo for 5 or 6 weeks, then surgery, then another round of chemo. He has recommended that I do the treatments where he is since it is a comprehensive facility- one of the larger in the Southeast (UAB). I am very apprehensive about relocating my family for 6 weeks to do the treatments, but am fearful of what might happen if I choose to have them done locally as opposed to there. I know he will be the Dr. to do the surgery. We know there will be a colostomy after the surgery, possibly temporary, but 50% chance of permenant. I guess I need your thoughts, insight and experience since I have none in this area!! Thanks for listening and I look forward to hearing your input!

 

It would be best if you could be close to the facility for treatment and medical aid if you have any side effects. Even after surgery, depending on what kind you have, travel in a car is painful, so the closer you are to the doctors, the better off you'll be. There is a lady here named Soccermom who is very knowledgable and hopefully she will respond to you. Do you know what kind of surgery you will be having, whether it is Low Anterior Resection or Transanal Excison? Also, the pathology of your tumor is important. I did not know any of these terms when I was diagnosed and let my doctors tell me what I needed. I never even asked a question. But I think they did ok for me. I am one year out and seem to be doing well. I have learned a lot from this website and the internet in general and once you have the facts of your case, you can find a lot of helpful info.

I had a similar path to diagnosis, hemmorroids since I was in my 20's (no kids, though), and continuing off and on for years. At age 49, noticed more than usual bleeding that did not go away. I waited 8 months before having a colonoscopy. During colonoscopy a 2 centimeter polyp was removed piecemeal. Pathology revealed an invasive well-differentiated adenocarcinoma arising in a tubulovillous adenoma. It had invaded through the muscularis mucosa and into the submucosa with positive polypectomy margins. (that was directly quoted form the pathology report). An EUS was performed 2 weeks later after various CT's and ultrasounds. The EUS diagnosed me as Stage 1, with an intact muscularis propria (T1NOMO). My tumor site was 7-8 cm above the anal verge.

I went into surgery (Low Anterior Resection) with a 50-50 chance at having a permanent colostomy, but came out with the temporary ileostomy. Post surgical pathology indicating no remaining cancer cells at all and no lymph node involvement. Neither chemo or radiation was recommended. I had reversal of ileostomy surgery 2 1/2 months later. I am doing good after one year, but it was a long road to recovery.

This must all sound like greek to you, and even though I was like a flamingo with my head buried in the sand, you have children and that makes it way more difficult because you need to know what to expect and get extra help for their care while you recuperate. I wish you all the best - it sounds like you have an early diagnosis and that is good.

New test results came back yesterday. I had the EUS done on Tuesday and the results are as follows- adenocarsinoma T3N1. They are not sure about the node, it just looks as if it was irritated and so now we have a PET scan scheduled for Thursday. I also meet with the Radiologist and Chemo doctors on Thursday. I have been 'staged' as 2A if the node is not involved and 3B if it is. Since, all of this makes some sense to me, but no sense on the other hand your input is great. I do hope to keep my knowledge honest (no sugar coating) so that I can prepare for what I need to with my girls. I am antisipating being able to kick this and be fine in a year. If I am fooling myself please let me know! Thanks to you all for your responses.

Oh and to answer your question about the surgery, I am not sure which will be preformed as my tumor is just at the line of dentation and is touching the sphincter muscle. I know the insision will be vertical below my belly button. I was told to expect a temporary bag and the possibility of a permenant one is 50% chance. I am just praying at this point that the PET scan will show no other spots and the nodes clear!

Thanks to you all for your responses!

sent you a PM with my email address and phone number.

Jaynee

Hey good luck with this.

A couple of things to consider.

1. Given your staging I would consider a long course of combined chemo and radiotheraphy. (Preferably the chemo by continuous infusion). This has a greater chance of reducing your tumour so that a perm stoma is not necessary. (Research also suggests a lesser chance of the cancer coming back for the longer course treatement for someone such as yourself). Get another opinion on this.

2. Research also suggests that when you have surgery done at a specialist clinic by experienced specialist surgeons, you have a greater chance of success. So wherever you go, check out who will be doing this and how experienced they are. If it was me and I could organise it, that would be my approach.

 chris

M-

 Don't know if you are reading this or not but wanted to know if you still wanted to talk.  Let me know if you do.

Jaynee