Stage 1 Local Rec. update and thanks

keff · October 2006

Thanks so much to Patrusha, SpongeBob, Babs211, Kanort and Vinny3 for the support when we found out about Mom's recurrence. You guys helped so much. It has been a wild month, but all the news is good. Mom had a PET scan to look for spread and luckily it just showed one small nodule in the pelvic area; however, it could not pinpoint the spot and estimated that it might be in the ureter. The surgeon thought that was highly unlikely as we knew the biopsy from the colonoscopy showed cancer in Mom's surgical site and she thought for sure that must be the spot the scan was picking up, but to be safe she decided on a full open surgery instead of a hand assisted lap like last time so they could get a good look and have a urologist present to examine the entire area during the colon resection. We didn't wait for a second pathology report after getting the positive PET scan result. The resection went fine- they only took out about 2 inches of colon this time. The surgeon said she could not even see the cancer in the colon with the naked eye. Two days later we got surprising great news from the pathologist. He called the surgeon and said he had been over and over the piece of colon they took out of Mom and there was no cancer anywhere. It turned out the PET scan was a false positive because scar tissue from the last surgery had caused Mom's ureter to become attached to her colon (something fixed during the surgery) and the PET scan was picking up the scar tissue and inflammation caused by it in the area and mistaking it for cancer. It looks like they caught it so early and there was such a small area of cancerous cells that the biopsy during the colonoscopy got them all. Assuming the cancer was there (and we didn't go through all this because of some horrible pathologist's error), she still would have needed the resection to get the area out to make sure the cells don't come back. I suspect SpongeBob was probably right that if the cancer cells were there they may have been left over from last time, whether it was not a clear margin or whether something got touched and a cancer cell left behind during the surgery. In any event, she is now out of the hospital and cancer free! Hopefully this time she will stay that way. She needs no further treatment and it is just a matter of getting her recovered from the surgery. Thanks again for all your support, and I wish each of you the best.

spongebob · October 2006

Great news, Keff! Thanks for sharing.

- SpongeBob

Unknown · October 2006

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lfondots63 · October 2006

Hi Keff,

So glad for the good news about mom. Will be sending her healing vibes that she is up and "running" soon from the surgery. I'm glad that it sounds they caught it early (if there was anything there like you said). Hugs to you and your family and keep us informed.

Lisa F.