Anyone else have similiar experience??

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jsaun74
jsaun74 Member Posts: 4
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
May 16th of this year my dad was DX with rectum /colon cancer, he had a huge mass in his rectum. He is 52 years old & has made it through his chemo & radiation treatment that he had before his surgery. Last Friday he had his surgery and at that time the Dr had about an ich left in his anal area left so they did not or so they thought did not need to give him a bag. Today the pathology report came back and it show cancer still in the "fine line" area. So this Friday they will go in and take that out and try to give him a temp bag, if there are no signs of cancer in his muscles. If there are they he will get a permenant bag. The Dr says it is stage III with 2 of 7 nodes coming back positive. Is this common?

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  • davidsonxx
    davidsonxx Member Posts: 134
    #2
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    It is unfortunate that your dad has to have 2 surgeries. It is sometimes a difficult call between trying to perserve function and getting wide enough margins to get all the cancer. Hopefully the muscle will be clear and your dad will just have a temporary bag. However, your dad should be able to do just about anything he does now even if he get the permanent colostomy.
  • LOUSWIFT
    LOUSWIFT Member Posts: 371 Member
    #3
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    I have been surprised how little clear tissue they need to re-attach the colon but the rectal muscles must be cancer free. I was wondering what grade your dads tumor was and how large? Also why so few nodes were removed for examination. As I said they don't need a lot of tissue to reconnect and avoid a colostomy but davidsonxx is right. Many of us here have been in the same situation as your dad and we are cancer survivors. Good luck on Friday
  • vinny3
    vinny3 Member Posts: 928 Member
    #4
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    I am 64, diagnosed with rectal cancer, stage 2, about 18 months ago. Had the chemo/radiation first and then a local excision. Looked like it was all gone but recurrance 8 months later. Had the total rectal excision and have a permanent colostomy. While it would be nice to be intact the colostomy is just not that bad and you adjust to it very quickly. In some respects, there has been some improvement with having it as before I would have, at times, some urgency to find the bathroom and no longer have to worry about that. After his surgery, they will start out with clear bags and that bothered me. However switching to the opaque bags was a vast improvement. The radiation is the reason there are not many nodes found. It shrinks alot of them. At the time of my second surgery they only found 8.

    ****
  • KierstenRx
    KierstenRx Member Posts: 249
    #5
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    vinny3 said:

    I am 64, diagnosed with rectal cancer, stage 2, about 18 months ago. Had the chemo/radiation first and then a local excision. Looked like it was all gone but recurrance 8 months later. Had the total rectal excision and have a permanent colostomy. While it would be nice to be intact the colostomy is just not that bad and you adjust to it very quickly. In some respects, there has been some improvement with having it as before I would have, at times, some urgency to find the bathroom and no longer have to worry about that. After his surgery, they will start out with clear bags and that bothered me. However switching to the opaque bags was a vast improvement. The radiation is the reason there are not many nodes found. It shrinks alot of them. At the time of my second surgery they only found 8.

    ****

    I totally agree with ****. Opaque is the way to go!!!! I felt 100 times better when I made the switch from clear bags.

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