Cancer recurrence?

ketziah35
ketziah35 Member Posts: 1,145
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My mother has been to the hospital 7 times since she was dxnd in May. She has had problems with infection, the dayum port twisted and she passed out. Her latest visit was for bloodclots and her pulse racing up. This is what we thought was due to bloodclots, but now they want to check her redblood cells to see if the cancer is back. She is on her 6th treatment of 12 with5fu and has had a resection. Do they start checking this early for cancer? Her Ct scans were good, but I guess as her daughter I want her to be rid of this chit and be healthy.


Ktz

Comments

  • Nana b
    Nana b Member Posts: 3,030 Member
    They will if they feel it
    They will if they feel it may be back. If the swelling in my belly does not go down soon, I have to have another scan!
  • John23
    John23 Member Posts: 2,122 Member
    Ktz -


    Re:
    "I guess as her daughter I want her to be rid of this chit and be healthy."

    Wow, what an unusual desire!

    Seriously, there isn't one cancer victim, or family/friend thereof,
    that doesn't want this crap to just go away. Unfortunately, cancer
    usually doesn't just "go away". The medical institution has the
    audacity to call cancer "a terminal disease"; Imagine that?
    The nerve!

    Your mom should locate another colorectal surgeon, and another
    gastrointestinal specialist, and get other qualified opinions. The doctors
    should not be of the same organization or area, so you might have to
    travel to another town... It's almost imperative to get other opinions,
    since doctors are human and make mistakes.

    If your mom was dx'd in May, that was just 4 months ago. What
    she's experiencing isn't a "reoccurrence", it's just an ongoing event.

    Surgeons all have their own ways of operating, but surgeons that
    are experienced in one area (colorectal, for instance), have seen
    cancer at every stage, and know how much of what to remove, to
    successfully eliminate as much cancer as possible. Other inexperienced
    surgeons seem to feel that they can "save" a lot of colon (and their patient
    from having an ostomy), by letting chemo and radiation kill what they
    don't remove. It can be a deadly decision on their part.

    A cancer cell usually takes between 1.5 to 2 years to grow large
    enough to be identified as cancer. A cell can be almost identifiable, and
    continue to grow just enough in a month, to be identifiable. But scans
    are usually set for 6 month periods, since some scans can add to the
    carcinogenic radiation we are all subjected to in normal life, pushing
    us into more cancer...

    Mom's got a tough battle, just as we all have here; there's no easy
    way out; there's no easy way to be "rid of this chit and be healthy".

    It takes time and work.

    There are also other options to chemo and radiation, and worth
    the time to do the research. Keeping a healthy immune system
    is of prime importance, and it isn't anything that's easy to do
    without will power....

    Best wishes to your mom, and you!

    John
  • ketziah35
    ketziah35 Member Posts: 1,145
    Nana b said:

    They will if they feel it
    They will if they feel it may be back. If the swelling in my belly does not go down soon, I have to have another scan!

    - just would have never
    - just would have never thought the blood clots and heart palPatations would be atributed to reoccurrence.