Help Please..Distance of Tumor from Rectum..Surgery Next Week

carrieh
My tumor was from 10 to 15cms from anus before chemo and radiation. Was given a 6 weeek rest between radiation and resection. Was given an iliostomy to let colon rest. After 7 weeks with a bag, had iliostomy reverseed(take down) . The reconnection was about 6 cms
from the anus. Acquired a fistula which healed itself fome the inside out. A year after the resection, a colonoscopy showed I was NED
(no evidence of desease) It is now another year later living a normal life. Still see Drs for tests,scans,etc. But life is good. Just celebrated my 80th birthday. Don't be afraid. You too can get through it all, just take it a day at a time. Best of luck to you. Hope this helped!!

Knowledge
At this stage in your journey there are so many major decisions and events happening it is hard to keep up and having some basic knowledge helps you feel at least sltightly in control of things.

With the issue of stoma etc for the tumour the distance your tmour is from the anus will determine whether the bowel can be rejoined (anastomosed). IF they need to cut out any of the last 5 cm of the rectum then rejoining is hard to do at all and some end up with a permanent stoma (the bowel is openined onto the stomach wall and empties into a bag- an ileostomy is small bowel opening and a colostomy is large bowel opening). This is unlikely for you. It is likely they will be able to rejoin the bowel for you but it may be that they want to give the rejoining a chance to heal without poo passing over it in which case they do a temporary bag. I had this for a year postop op while it healed and I had 6 months post op chemo which is common in rectal cancer. I then had a reversal and plumbing is fairly normal now. This technique makes it less likely that you will have complications related to the rejoining.

The scans they have done are good but not perfect. They will know more when they get int ehre, hence the reason they can't be 100% certin what will be best for you till they are inthere and they are telling you all the possibilities.

As for the uterus I'm less sure. The uterus sits between your rectum and your baldder at the front. Ehnce cancer can spread through the wall of the bowel and affect the uterus. It can do this without metastsising to other parts of the body. An MRI scan should have shown this. However, it may also become fixed because of a wide range of other causes. Talk to your team and put your questions to them.

Do some reading of basic sites and try and understand a ;little more about your illness and treatment- it might give you a bit more strength and feeling of being in control at a time when you undoubtably feel out of control.

Hope this is helpful,
steve

Hi Carrie
Everyone is different in this fight, so it's really hard to answer your questions without knowing more. Have you had radiation therapy? When I was first diagnosed, the tumor was so large that it was protruding outside of the anus. I actually thought that it was a hemorrhoid. Because of how low down it was, my surgeon told me that there was no way I was coming out of this without a bag. He did advise radiation first so that we could shrink down the tumor to minimize the amount of tissue that would need to be removed. After six weeks of radiation, the tumor had shrunk down to the size of a small pea and no surgery was necessary. Chemo has taken care of what was left and now we're treating the tumors that spread to my lung (now all gone) and my liver. If you haven't had radiation yet, I would suggest that you speak with your surgeon and onc about taking that route first.

Good luck and God Bless

Doc

Hi Carrie, I'm rectal cancer
Hi Carrie, I'm rectal cancer so I don't know about colon. I'm fairly new too and what I've figured out is doctors must tell you worst case scenario. Each and every time. It's scary to hear but they're covering themselves in case they get inside and see something they couldn't see on a test or scan. Imagine he didn't tell you you could have to get a bag and you woke up with one. Also one of my doctors said one measurement, the other said another. So it has to be a wait until you get inside and then you can be exact thing. Otherwise they both would have come up with the exact same measurements. I have panicked each and every time I talk to my doctor. Then I realize he's just telling me worse case scenario because he has to. The days are getting shorter and shorter that I panic. Then it starts over with the next visit. When the doctor found out I was having anxiety, last visit he actually cut me a break and said I'm required to tell you worst case, you are not worst case scenario. Do not panic. That being said . . if you were worst case we would . . . . but you're not! so we won't have to do any of that. That was a relief to hear him say although I still secretly panicked slightly.

As for the uterus. You didn't say if you went to the GYN onc, you said other surgeon. Definitely worth a visit before next week if you haven't. My doctor told me that parts of the body like ovaries, have to be seen from the inside during surgery but the uterus is usually accessible for testing without surgery so it's worth the ask to see if they can tell you what's going on before hand. Maybe the way the tumors positioned they have to wait until they get in there. Only way to find out is to ask. I've called my doctor's office every time I think of an important question. He has a nurse to answer basics and he fields any bigger ones. Doctors only do so much, you have to do the rest. Also if you have insurance and can get a PET scan, that will give you a great sense of relief about the rest of your body. Suddenly we all have cancer all over our bodies. Every ache, pain and sign we can think of turns into cancer. I went for mine and it gave me such a great peace of mind to deal with what is actually present, not with what might be.

i had rectal cancer stage 1
Carrie, its hard to relax but try. I went for screening colonoscopy and they found polyp in rectum, which turned out cancerous. Off I went to Moffitt Cancer Center for a rejection because margins were only .5mm. I was told the same re bag. They were able to operate on me through anus. I think if it were me, I would find a good cancer center and get a second opinion since you have other issues. Moffitt is 7hours from me, but I was in great hands. I had met to sigmoid lymph node 2 years later. That op was through ab. I did chemo for three mos, then six weeks later had op, waited six weeks another three mos of chemo. Get all the facts. Read all you can get your hands on. I, like doc would think pet would have shown cancer in uterus, hence my suggestion to get second opinion. Keep us posted....we all truly care.

golf_gal said:

just curious
Did they do a biopsy? If so, was it adenocarcinoma? I'm not up on uterine cancer,
but I haven't heard of many gals who have had uterine cancer spread to rectum. I might be out of the loop, just haven't seen much of that.

Bag possibility - but didn't happen
My surgeon told me it looked good for reattaching the rectum and no bag but the final decision would be when he opened me up. I am 5 days post op in hospital bed now - no bag. Surgery went good, had rectal tumor out, gallbladder out and liver tumor out. Before surgery I had 5 weeks of chemo/radiation that my surgeon said shrunk the tumor tremendously. Which helped with surgery and with not having bag. Before radiation my rectal tumor was so large my oncologist and surgeon were worried about total blockage. Good luck and remember docs have to tell you about all possibilities.
Sandy

pete43lost_at_sea said:

its a big op, but we all bounce back pretty well.

it is hard work after the op, put your questions back to your surgeon.

he is covering his butt, because when they open you up they might find something unexpected, that cts / mri don't show.

smile , you are taking a large step on the path to better health. keep asking lots of questions, its the best way to learn, you will give yourself the best shot at a cure.

hugs,
pete

CEA
PETE I read your post last week that your scans are all clear but your CEA is high. Are you doing chemo at this time. My husband just finished about 4 months of chemo and his scans were clean when his CEA was rising. I felt they should have started chemo last year. Well now his CEA is 5 down from 46 and again scans are clear. These scans are just not accurate in my opinion. His cancer finally showed up in two lymph nodes. It was his surgeon who fond the swollen nodes nobody else was seeing them.