My First Hurdle Done With

Annabelle41415

Today I am so pleased to announce that I am finished with radiation and chemo for my first hurdle in this battle of the little "c". I started this treatment on January 7 and today was my "freedom" day for awhile at least.

My next hurdle is picking a surgeon. I started with one that gave me hope of being cancer free but with a permanent colostomy. The surgeon I just saw gave me a 50/50 chance of colostomy, but I don't feel I gave the first surgeon a chance to rediagnose me so I'm at a lost at what to do. My radiation doctor thinks so highly of the one I am going to see on Tuesday so I am leaning towards him. Geez big decision I don't know what to do. I hate this decision because my first surgeon was a woman and very caring, but so was the second one, but he has more time in surgery than the first.

I seem to have had more tears and burns, and infections than I care to mention. I have more drugs in my cupboard than the pharmacy, but I'm thankful for these drugs. They are helping me live, cope, stay calm (yeah right LOL), stop diarrhea, stop constipation, help my immune system, etc, etc. I'm so ready to give this all I can and I will.

I'm sure a lot of your stories are the same as mine.

Wow what a new journey we take with us.

Kim

msccolon

tough decisions
it seems this battle has a lot of those! Just my two cents, even though I don't think you are asking I would DEFINITELY go with the one with more experience! Female/male she's nice aside, give me the hardass no personality surgeon who's dam good at what he does, and does it often, any day of the week! My family and the other staff can be nice to me! And I hear you on the drug thing! I have a large basket that I keep my meds in and when I travel, I just pop them into an insulated lunch bag rather than attempt to fill one of those cases for pills for a week! Besides, then I don't have to worry about staying longer than the supply of meds I brought with me!
mary

tootsie1

Congrats
Kim,

Congratulations on getting through that first hurdle! I'm sure it wasn't easy.

Good luck on picking the best surgeon. It's tough to trust the one body you have to somebody, isn't it?

Please let us know when your surgery is coming up, so we can do lots of praying for you.

*hugs*
Gail

johnnybegood

congrats
good for you i remember when i crossed that hurdle i felt i had really accomplished something and we have.i have been thru surgery already and just finished my iliostomy reversal a week ago, my surgen has very little bed side manner but he is damn good at what he does and i am thankful for that.keep up the good spirit and remember your on your way.....Gos bless

PhillieG

tough decisions
Hi Kim,
Sorry you have to deal with all of this but it's always good to get over each hurdle. Sometimes there are many. I would certainly revisit your first surgeon since they talked about hope of being cancer free and maybe the colostomy isn't inevitable now. Is there a huge difference in the amount of time each has had in surgery? If there is, I'd probably lean toward the one with more experience but if it's something like 15 years vs 12 years I wouldn't think it's much of a difference (my opinion of course). I was lucky I didn't have to have a colostomy, it was a fear of mine but I did have bigger fish to fry (like getting through the surgery) I would have been happy either way. It's an adjustment I'm sure but as I've found, cancer is a series of dealing with what I call "new normals". My life will never be the same as it was pre cancer so now I have to adjust to the cards I am dealt at the time. I was lucky too because I never had to go through radiation. It was never even discussed. I guess for my dx it wasn't an option but it doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. I'm very happy for you that you got over that hurdle though. You sound very strong and you have a good attitude too. That is very important in dealing/living with cancer. I know my last few posts have not been very good in the attitude department but it's part of the new normal with ups and downs. Just from my own experience when I was first diagnosed, the dr who found the cancer, who BTW was my primary care dr who I had been seeing on a yearly basis for 10 years and was also an oncologist, didn't see the cancer until it was stage IV. He wanted to cut me open right away. I went with a second opinion over at Sloan Kettering and my oncologist wanted to try to cure me and put me on chemo right away so we could shrink the tumors before operating on them. Looking back it was a no brainer in my book and I feel I made the right choice. I'm sure you will make the right choice too but going back for a reevaluation would be a good thing to do I feel.
I know what you mean about the drugs, I've never had so many (legal) drugs before in my life! They take the edge off the hard days and it is funny how we need one to poop, one to stop pooping, one for this, and one for that.
Hang tough.
-p

Buzzard

PhillieG said:

tough decisions
Hi Kim,
Sorry you have to deal with all of this but it's always good to get over each hurdle. Sometimes there are many. I would certainly revisit your first surgeon since they talked about hope of being cancer free and maybe the colostomy isn't inevitable now. Is there a huge difference in the amount of time each has had in surgery? If there is, I'd probably lean toward the one with more experience but if it's something like 15 years vs 12 years I wouldn't think it's much of a difference (my opinion of course). I was lucky I didn't have to have a colostomy, it was a fear of mine but I did have bigger fish to fry (like getting through the surgery) I would have been happy either way. It's an adjustment I'm sure but as I've found, cancer is a series of dealing with what I call "new normals". My life will never be the same as it was pre cancer so now I have to adjust to the cards I am dealt at the time. I was lucky too because I never had to go through radiation. It was never even discussed. I guess for my dx it wasn't an option but it doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. I'm very happy for you that you got over that hurdle though. You sound very strong and you have a good attitude too. That is very important in dealing/living with cancer. I know my last few posts have not been very good in the attitude department but it's part of the new normal with ups and downs. Just from my own experience when I was first diagnosed, the dr who found the cancer, who BTW was my primary care dr who I had been seeing on a yearly basis for 10 years and was also an oncologist, didn't see the cancer until it was stage IV. He wanted to cut me open right away. I went with a second opinion over at Sloan Kettering and my oncologist wanted to try to cure me and put me on chemo right away so we could shrink the tumors before operating on them. Looking back it was a no brainer in my book and I feel I made the right choice. I'm sure you will make the right choice too but going back for a reevaluation would be a good thing to do I feel.
I know what you mean about the drugs, I've never had so many (legal) drugs before in my life! They take the edge off the hard days and it is funny how we need one to poop, one to stop pooping, one for this, and one for that.
Hang tough.
-p

What do ya want ?
Im like Mary...Gimme one thats not gonna dilly dally and is gonna tell me like it is, then I'll make the decision whether its the one I want or not. If I want someone to be nice to me I'll call my mom but if I want someone to get rid of my disease im gonna pick the cockyest (sp?) I can find cause they are probably the best at what they do......Good Luck in your choices and God Bless ya Hun...He will Im sure.... :-)