John, Carrie & I went to Omaha on Tuesday, March 1 for the ultrasound and the consultation. (Note - this was a beautiful warm spring day - so we know that March will probably go out like a lion this year - maybe Tuesday's upcoming snow prediction?). At the time that we went in, I wasn't sure WHO was doing the ultrasound or the consultation. When they gotten me back in a room, the nurse asked me if I knew what was going to happen. I told her that all of this had happened SO quickly that all I knew was what I needed to do to prepare for today. I asked her if Dr. B was going to do the ultrasound, she said yes. She then explained to me what would happen - I had a transrectal ultrasound, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. I liked Dr. B from the moment she came into the room - she had a great bedside manner, and told me upfront that no one liked surprises, so she would walk me through everything that would happen. The ultrasound took about 20 minutes tops (it was much easier than the stereotactic biopsy too I might add). While I was getting redressed, Dr. B went in to talk to Carrie & John. When I got into the consultation room, she brought me up to speed too. I already knew that the tumor was about the size of a ping pong ball and that there were no lymph nodes involved. The tests from the previous week had told them that I had no markers for colon cancer, and also that this was not a recurrence of the breast cancer - it was cancer . . . round 2. (All these things are very positive - including the fact that it was caught early - which is why I also want to recommend having colonoscopies! Even if you don't do them on a timely fashion - please do it. I believe that there are no coincidences in life - God has a hand in everything . . . do you think there was a reason that I waited to get my base colonoscopy?)
Let me assure you that the word cancer is not nearly as scary to hear the second time around - as a matter of fact you actually hear the words after cancer . . . the first time around you shut down when you hear the C word. She told us that I had Stage 2 colorectal cancer - and that the tumor was about 8 cm (about the length of your pointer finger) up from the rectum. Then she gave us the plan of attack - she told us that I would do radiation and chemotherapy. I had experience with radiation with the breast cancer, but the chemo was a whole new thing. She told us that I probably would wear a pump for the chemo (and that this chemo would be much less wicked than breast cancer chemo - so I shouldn't lose my hair). Another positive note was because I already had cancer, my oncologist and radiation oncologist were already in place - and Dr. B would communicate with them. Everything was broken down into two month sections - I would have the radiation & chemo for two months, then I would let the radiation and chemo continue to work for two months, then about July I will go to Omaha to have surgery (more about that later) and I will come home with an ileostomy bag (for the water waste) and then two months later (about September) I will go in and have another surgery to reverse the ileostomy (or as Dr. B put it, just as soon as you get used to taking care of it, we're going to bring you back in to reverse it). This plan of attack is exactly the opposite of what we did with the breast cancer, and Dr. B explained that they wanted to use the radiation and chemo first to shrink the tumor - which will make the surgery easier! So by the time fall 2011 rolls around all of this should be behind me.
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