Worried about my Mom.

shmurciakova

Hi, Some of you may remember me, I am a CC survivor myself. I recently had a thoracotomy done (in October) for mets to the right lung. I am happy to report that at this time I am NED. My mother, however, just had a colonoscopy done (finally). I was diagnosed in 2002 and it had taken her this long to get around to being tested herself. She had been dealing w/ chronic constipation for as long as she can remember.....Anyway, today they removed 20 polyps from her colon. She is 70 years old. My question is this, is it possible that all of these polyps could be benign or pre-cancerous? I of course am very worried considering what all I have gone through dealing w/ my disease. I am only 34 and have had 3 surguries, 2 rounds of chemo and much mental turmoil. It is one thing for a young person to deal w/ this, but my mother is not as strong or in shape as I am and I worry. We will not know the results for several days. Has anyone ever heard of someone having this many polyps and them being OK? Please let me know if you have heard of a case like this that turned out to be OK.
-Susan.

steved

Yes they may all be benign but it does seem to indicate it is a family trait to have polyps and predispostion to cancer. This makes it all the more mportant for other family memebers to be screened. There are conditions such as attenuated familial ademotous polyposis that can cause these kind of finding (it is unlikely to be nonattenuated FAP as there would have been more polyps) so it willbe important to discuss this through with your docs.

Keep up the optimism and don't let this get you down till you now for sure what you are dealing with.

Steve.

littlejulie

Hi there Susan,
I'm sure its possible. I have an uncle who has a colonoscopy every 2-3 years and everytime he has one the doctors removed between 6-8 polyps all of which were benign. She should be having colonoscopy very often from now on.

julie

julie

kangatoo

littlejulie said:

Hi there Susan,
I'm sure its possible. I have an uncle who has a colonoscopy every 2-3 years and everytime he has one the doctors removed between 6-8 polyps all of which were benign. She should be having colonoscopy very often from now on.

julie

julie

Remember you???? Sure do Susan and it is good to hear from you. I am happy to know that you are NED at this moment. As for your mum I think Steve's advice is very much applicable here.
My surgeon told me that polyps are a very common finding with a large proportion of the population all over the world. In many, many cases they are benign and don't cause a problem or turn cancerous. A lot of times they go un-noticed until they cause complications such as blockages---and still be non-cancerous. It is a worry of course but allow the specialists time to investigate Susan.
Nice to catch you again Susan, luv kanga n Jen

nanuk

I've known folks with more polyps than your mom..remember they are Pre-canceous.. and they're gone.
Bud

junecates

Hi their, my name is June and I just read about your mom having the polyps and all. I just wanted to tell you my mom went thru that and she is 69 now. First of all she had colon cancer, they found several polyps and removed them and telling us that their was no cancer. when the polyps went to the lab, it came back she had cancer. well they did the 5fu chemo treatment and said she was cancer free and they kept doing the scan every 6 months. this all took place 3 years ago, well now the cancer is back and the scan showed it and where it was. so they decided to do surgery and go in and get it. well they did go in and closed her back up cause of where all it was they couldnt get it cause it is sitting on top of her colon and it is on her kidneys, her urinetier and it is wrapped around her main blood flow to her leg. they went into remove it and seen what was going on and left it. now she is back on 5fu and another form of chemo and she was sent home with a pump yesterday that continues to pump in every hour for the next 24. they are calling this cancer arenocarsonma all I know we are all praying for our mom and we really dont know the outcome of what is going to happen, but we were told that theirs was a small chance they could get it, they wanted to shrink it before it spreaded anywhere else. I hope your mom will be ok, I will be praying for her as well.

june