The Results of the Biopsy

  The appointment I had with the surgeon that did my colectomy brought news of a less than rosy nature. The cancer that was in my intestines has affected one of my lymph nodes. This means that my cancer is officially at stage 3. I have an appointment with an oncologist this Wednesday to go over my treatment options. Dr. Needle said that chemotherapy is the most likely course of action. Given what I know about chemotherapy, this won't be a pleasant experience. On the plus side, I've heard that there are a variety of chemotherapy treatments out there and not all of them make you sick, kill your appetite and cause massive hair loss. I'm not looking forward to this but I have little choice. Doing nothing means the cancer will spread and I'll end up at stage 4. Stage 4 is pretty much death. I can't let that happen. The cancer can still be stopped.

Heading for Surgery

  On Sept. 25th, I'm going to have laparoscopic colorectal surgery to remove the cancerous polyp from my cecum. Despite the fact that the polyp is only approximately 1cm, about one third of my large intestine will be removed. I believe this is being done in order to prevent the cancer from spreading to my lymph nodes. There's some lab and prep work that needs to be done prior to the surgery. I also have to get in touch with Human Resources at work to secure the time off. I'm going to be in the hospital for about one week and off from work for about a month. I also need to call AIL and see if they need to get involved.

Colonoscopy Update

  In my last colonoscopy post, I mistakenly stated that one of the polyps was in a precancerous state. That statement is wrong. The polyp found in my cecum is cancerous specifically an invasive moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. As far as I know, the cancer is limited to the polyp itself. I had a CT scan this past Friday that will provide more information about the extent of the cancer. Needless to say, I'll be getting surgery to remove it some time in the future. Updates will be posted on this blog as more information comes in.