CancerCompass message board discussion started by LaRae on 1/13/2008 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,19697,0.htm Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ I think there may be a window of time following chemo & radiation when an operation has be performed if surgery is wanted. Can anyone verify this and if it is true, can you tell me more about the window? How much time do we have before the window closes and surgery is no longer an option? The chemo ended 11/16. She was put into the Hospital because of the side effects of the one week of chemo and the feeding tube was put in 11/28. The radiation ended 12/7 and surgery was scheduled Jan 31. LaRae was put back into the hospital for pain in her stomach last Tuesday, Jan 8 and at I:30AM Wednesday she was taken to ICU because her blood pressure had dropped to 74 over 40, heart rate was 130, temperature was 194. Exploratory surgery  was performed at 5PM and they found her intestine was gangrenous and they removed 2 feet of the intestine. Without divine intervention, she will not be able to have the cancer surgery on the 31st and we want to know how much time we have in order to be specific in our prayers. Thank you-ken LaRae Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT I'm quite sure there is a window in the treatment protocols.  At the point where my husband underwent surgery, I remember surgeon saying we almost missed window.  It's been almost two years so I don't remember exact details, but I think we had to wait a certain amount of time to repeat PET between scans, and they wanted another PET to see if lung metastasis cleared in chemo to determine if esophagogastrectomy was even an option.  The PET wait pushed us further down the road for surgery.  Believe we finished chemo 2/7 and had surgery 3/23.  My husband had 12 inches of bowel resected almost 3 weeks ago, and was in excellent shape presurgically from tongren, and about 6 months out of his most recent chemo.  He has not bounced back from bowel resection as quickly as I would have expected.  Call your doctor and ask about the window so you can prepare yourselves if possible.  tongrenhealer Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Ken,I'm not sure about the window, but my husband stopped his chemo on 12/21/06 and he didn't have his surgery until 2/26/07.  That was a good two months.  His doctor told him all the chem had to be out of his body before the scan was done.  So hopefully this makes surgery still possible.  Good luck! -Becky Strong4him Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT