Well, today was the day. Luke had his colonoscopy and it wasn’t good. They found a tumor large enough to constrict but not block in the lower bowel. He is going to have to have it removed. We expect to find out if it is malignant on Tuesday. They were not able to examine the upper colon but will when they remove the tumor. That will probably be within the next 2 weeks.
Luke feels fine…. and this is not as shocking as it would be if we did not expect it. Will keep you posted.
I’ll try to remember to call -my mind this week is a bit past being sieve like – but I’ll ask the main question here.
When’s the removal surgery? I assume it’ll be pretty soon and the 2 weeks is the waiting period after that surgery to know more about what’s going on.
And good luck, get healthy, and all that stuffs
They sent a bit to the lab for testing. It matters whether it is malignant. If it isn’t, it is a simple matter of removing an inch or so of colon and stitching it back together. If is is they have to take more, do it differently. Also, when they are able to look at the upper colon they may find that this is not the only one. I am not clear on whether they would remove others right then, if they find more, or if they would schedule another surgery after the biopsies. I’m not sure what happens if they find several or how many it would take to shorten the colon so much they could not reconnect. It’s all up in the air right now.
As for the time of the surgery, it was my understanding that he would get some blood work done and then schedule surgery. I was thinking a week or so. Luke is expecting it to be 2 weeks. We do know it will be soon.
If it is malignant they will send more to the lab, deeper bits, to find out if it has grown thru the colon wall. If it has we will be talking about more treatment, but we will cross that bridge if we come to it.
Oh man.
Finally got the results back from the tests. It is all good.
An MRI was done to see if they could locate any other tumors further up than they were able to look and they saw nothing. There may be some that are too small for the MRI to pick them up, but nothing that looks like it is going to take major surgery to remove. That means they will probably be able to take out a few inches and stitch the colon back together, a little shorter than before.
(The colon is about 150 cm long and his tumor is at 30 cm…. picture the colon as round, the face of a clock with 6 being the rectum…. his tumor is at 5 or between 4 and 5… there is lots they didn’t see.)
He also had some blood tests done. I did not know it but when an organ has a tumor it will start making something in the blood which they can look for – a marker. He has no markers for tumors anywhere, not even the colon. That means it has probably not grown thru the entire colon wall, which is a very good thing. They also checked for leakage. When a tumor reaches thru the colon wall where it becomes a danger to other organs, there is often leakage, small enough that the body can take care of it at first. There was no leakage.
So we are relieved. Chances are good that he will have surgery, be on a liquid diet for several weeks while it heals, and all will be well. Not a guarantee… they might find more when they actually get inside, but indications are good.
All this was from his GP. He has yet to see the specialist.
Luke had his appointment with the surgeon today. The surgery is scheduled for Nov. 10. They plan to keep in in the hospital for 4 days and he will probably not be going back to work for a month.
For the record, the surgery went well and Luke is recovering on schedule.
Saw the doctor yesterday evening. He said that there is no visible indication that the tumor spread (and that often nothing shows up in the lab tests and MRI but when they get inside they find tiny spots on other organs – so finding nothing inside is the next level of good news).
However, he said, the real question is, has it spread to the lymph nodes. Apparently there is something that runs along with the colon which includes lymph nodes so when they remove a section of colon, they also remove the lymph nodes that are near it. Those are sent to the lab. If there are no cancer cells, then either we got it all or it wasn’t malignant. If there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes, they will recommend chemo. We are not out of the woods yet.
Thanks for the updates. I’ll be better about checking in here now that I know the updates are here to be found.
So – tomorrow is discharge day? Still on track for that?
I think he will be coming home Saturday. The doctor said that he would be on solid food before he comes home and he is still on a liquid diet. That is all i am basing my opinion on. Luke is hoping for tomorrow.
I think, too, that he needs to have some bowel. It takes a while for the colon to start working. I suppose it is shocked. This is my understanding: They had him on nothing but ice to sooth the throat at first, liquid diet when he had colon noises, solid when he has passed gas (which he has), and coming home when he has some bowel (which will be a little diarrhea).
Another factor is that he needs to be up and walking around. He walked for 45 minutes tonight.
Another thing that may slow the process is that he occasionally runs a temp. Temp is an indication of infection so the nurses get all upset, but we tell them that this is just the way Luke gets warm when his temperature drops. At home he can take a hot shower or use something electric, but when he has no heat source he has to pile the blankets on till he gets actually hot, then he takes the covers off and cools down to normal in a half hour. But if he does not do this to get warm his temp will drop. They took it once when he was cold and it was 87. Cold is as dangerous as fever.
But, there is that occasional small spike in temperature on his record. I don’t know if the doctor will take what Luke has told him into consideration and ignore it or not take the chance. Tomorrow we are going to be more careful when the day begins to cool. We are going to turn the heat up. That is one nice thing that happened when he chilled so much. They took the lock off the thermostat.
The way they heat the rooms is crazy. The thermostat is right outside the bathroom door but the air vents are in the bathroom. To get heat we have to have the bathroom door open and the instinct is to close it. It makes for a warm bathroom.
Anyway, to answer the question, tomorrow is still possible, but i don’t think it is likely. I hope they keep him till Saturday. When they did the surgery they used a spinal block (or whatever it is called now). They left it in to feed him pain killer. They say it is very effective. He has no pain (the first day he was asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 high, now much… he said about a 2). I think he is going to have pain when they remove it and the sooner they remove it, the more pain.
This morning they took out all the tubes. They were thinking he would probably go home today. But when they took out the spinal thing they had done for surgery and left in to feed him pain killer. He didn’t think it was making much difference, anyway. A few hours later when all the pain killer already in his system wore off he was in pain. He is still hurting pretty bad. He is taking oral pain killers, but says they don’t make much improvement.
Yesterday he was up and walking and feeling so good. Today he is miserable, hurting with every move, not even able to think much.
Saturday, and Luke is home, sitting on his own couch, watching his own television. We got him home from the hospital at about 5.
He is tired, of course. Funny how just coming home from the hospital can tire a person. He is still in pain (on pain pills) and eating carefully (because he ate too freely the first time he was allowed solid food and it did not set well). They expect him to be feeling like himself in another week. He is supposed to see his doctor next Friday. I hope the lab results are back by then.