Rectal Cancer Misdiagnosis

Joan_Lipp

I was bleading and had bad hemhorroid, so went for sigmoidoscopy, and endoscopy. I complained of pain when tried to insert into rectum, so doctor stopped and did only endoscopy. After 6 months with no change, same doctor sent me to get an air colonoscopy. The nozzle blew off and I hemorraged all over the radiologist office. The doctor still told me he saw nothing wrong. He sent me to a surgeon who treated the hemmhoroid for 4 months and was surprised that it didn't go away. He found my tumor easily with a finger exam. By then it was Stage 3 and there was cancer in 11 of 14 lymph nodes. The surgeon shook his head and said that "young" doctors, like the gastroenterologist who missed the diagnosis because it didn't show up on the pictures (it was very low) put so much faith in technology that they "forget to think" about what they are seeing in the patient.

I failed to make enough "noise" about my symptoms (fatigue, pain, blood in stool, difficulty with bowel movements). I reported all this in a matter-of-fact way, but a person really needs to COMPLAIN LOUDLY so doctors don't just blow you off.

I am waiting to find out if spots on liver and lung in latest PET scan are metastases. I also have a lot of pain from neuropathy, and fibromyalgia since treatment with oxalyplatin. Is there any one else out there whose fatigue has just gotten worse since chemo?

tootsie1

That's an outrage
I'm so sorry you had such a bad case of misdiagnose. That just burns me up! I do pray you will recover your health, and I also hope you will always speak up very LOUDLY in the future. Don't let them play around with your life!

*hugs*
Gail

chynabear

tootsie1 said:

That's an outrage
I'm so sorry you had such a bad case of misdiagnose. That just burns me up! I do pray you will recover your health, and I also hope you will always speak up very LOUDLY in the future. Don't let them play around with your life!

*hugs*
Gail

Chemo is going to cause you
Chemo is going to cause you drastic amounts of fatigue... I would even give yourself 6 months - 1 year to fully recover from chemo and regain strength. I was blown away to discover this little fact.

Did you do the colonoscopy fully awake? I was completely out, and only came to a little when they snared my cancerous polyp. I remember (in a drunken way) the team discussing whether to give me more to put me back our or let me come fully awake... they must have decided that I should sleep more because I blacked out again. If I could get them to put me night-night when they do anything around my rearend, I would!

I never even realized any "symptoms" until way after the fact. The only symptom that alarmed me was the blood. Years later, I realized that I was always tired (I just thought this was normal, plus, I hardly got any sleep in those days as it was during my college years), bowel movements were basically normal, but I always seemed to be sick with sore throat or something. Now, I wonder if I was always sick because I had cancer. Now, I hardly ever get sick.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I wish you the best and hope you get better care now.

Shannonlw7

misdiagnosed also
i was also misdiagnosed, the doctor told me i had hemorroids..i was in terrible pain all the time and felt like such a crybaby, because millions of people live with hemorroids everyday and dont complain like me. so i sucked it up and dealt with it for as long as i could. then finally she made an appt. for a surgeon to remove them because "they" were now external also. but the first time the surgeon looked at me, he said which dr told you that it was hemorroids? because i think its cancer. the tumor was outside my body and she still misdiagnosed me. i had never even heard of rectal or anal cancer, and i had NO idea something like that could even happen to a person or i would have went to another doctor sooner. so by the time iwas diagnosed i was stage III with tumors in lymph node near pelvic area. i had radiation and chemo and they both drained my energy.
i hope your tests come back clean and my thoughts are with you..

lisa42

Wow- too familiar
Hi Joan,

Your story enrages me and makes me angry at my own doctor and nurse practitioner all over again. I can so relate to what you've been through because I was also put off and misdiagnosed as having "a very large hemmorhoid", when the nurse practitioner was actually feeling my rectal tumor. My tumor was very hard and very unlike a hemorroid, so how it was called that is beyond me! I had actually gone to the doctor for rectal bleeding approximately four years before that time & was just given directions on how to treat hemorrhoids. I knew I did also have them, but I can only imagine how long my tumor was growing before it was actually found. Long story short, I was already at stage IV upon diagnosis (just turned 41 a few weeks before diagnosis). I had to insist on my colonoscopy, which I put off a few months after my visit with the nurse practitioner. She obviously thought nothing was wrong, so I just assumed I must be a hypochondriac- I had no family history of any kind of cancer, wasn't male or over 50, didn't drink, wasn't obese- didn't fit the usual "stereotype of who gets colorectal cancer", in other words.

You mentioned pain and fibromyalgia from oxy. I'm experiencing lots of joint and muscle pains lately. I've tested negative two times now for all the rheumatoid arthritis blood tests, although my symptoms still seem to point to that. I wonder if the chemo can just mimic those symptoms, as well as fibromyalgia symptoms.
For your neuropathy pain, there are drugs and supplements to look into. If it's pain from neuropathy and not just numbness, I've heard Lyrica can be helpful (but watch out for the "foggy head" it can supposedly cause). I'd also start taking (if you're not already) B-6, B-12, L-lysine, and L-glutamine. Check out some of the other threads that have been posted in the past on neuropathy.

Well, it's now a year and nine months later after my diagnosis and I'm now taking "maintenance treatment"- after six months of chemo, six weeks of radiation and chemo, surgery, four months of thinking I was NED, a recurrence in my lungs, seven more months of chemo, and now maintenance chemo to make sure it stays under control. All in all, a rough road, but I'm here, doing well, feeling energetic, and am counting the blessings I've been given and how I believe the Lord has now allowed me to be a blessing to others through this experience.

Well, my advice to you would be to turn the anger and frustration towards your doctors into proactive energy to fight this beast with every ounce of strength you have! I'll be praying for you, if you'd like re. the situation of awaiting news on the newly found liver and lung spots. Hang in there!

God bless,
Lisa