Hypec surgery???

Eve1
Eve1 Member Posts: 9
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi Everyone, I was diagnosed in November of 08 with stage 4 colorectal cancer I've had two surgeries. One to debulk cancer in the periteneal area and one to do a bowel resection. I've since had a colostomy bag. I would like to know if anybody has considered the Hypec surgery? I had been cancer free since my surgeries until my last cat scan. It showed a soft tissue mass in my lower pelvic area. I have no other organ involvement at this time. I understand that this surgery must be done before the cancer spreads to other organs. Any information would be greatly appreciated

Comments

  • dianetavegia
    dianetavegia Member Posts: 1,942 Member
    Do a search on Hipec
    You'll find a number of our Stage IV's who've either had this or talked about this.
  • Crow71
    Crow71 Member Posts: 679 Member
    Hi Eve. Sorry I missed this
    Hi Eve. Sorry I missed this one yesterday. I'm Stage IV with 15 liver mets and 5 peritoneal mets. I'm scheduled to be debulked and have HIPEC in April. The surgeon will also resect the liver and primary rectal site. I thought that HIPEC was done along with the debulking procedure. How come you didn't get it last time? Also Where did you have your surgery?
    Roger
  • C Dixon
    C Dixon Member Posts: 201
    I have had HIPEC
    I too was diagnosed with Stage IV in Nov. '08. At that time I had the colon resection and went through 12 rounds of Folfox with Avastin. After that there was still active disease on my diaphragm. So, I went in and they resected the diaphragm, used RFA on my liver and did a HIPEC.

    I had this done at Duke. Make sure you do your research on where to have this because not everyone can do this. I don't know if Duke is so advanced in this but my surgeon had trained at MD Anderson (I think) and I really like the liver surgeon there, so I stayed there.

    I am just finishing Round 11 of post-op Folfiri. So far my scans are clean.

    I was in the hospital for 7 days after surgery. The first two days of pain were MIGHTY but I made myself walk and walk and it really helped. The pain pump helped too.

    It took three months to be able to do everything like before the surgery, meaning ab exercises and walking/running. My abs still are tight and I have to regularly stretch them. I was driving less than three weeks home and doing "regular" things around that time too. But then you start chemo and have to figure that into your recovery as well.

    Catherine
  • jonrwall
    jonrwall Member Posts: 10
    Be careful and do your research
    As most of the people on this board know, my wife recently died (8 days ago) from complications that devloped from her Hipec surgery. She was a 33yo woman with a strong heart. We had the surgery done at Tufts in Boston. As I have stated before, I would back her choice to do it again as we had no other options. Though hindsite tells me to have it done elsewhere.
  • msccolon
    msccolon Member Posts: 1,917 Member
    I had HIPEC
    Same place Roger is scheduled to have his, May of 2009. The procedure itself went well, but I had massive infections and wound up in the hospital for roughly 3 months off and on. I now have a ventral hernia that isn't reasonably repairable. I have been battling this disease since August of 2004 with multiple recurrences.
    mary