weird, weird, question, anybody ANYBODY......??????

Hello, I know I had a large skin tag near the tumor and my surgeon said it would fall off from going through treatment.  Well it never did, so when I had a biopsy the surgeon went ahead and removed the skin tag.  Maybe it was a skin tag.  Thats neat that you were able to save it.  Let us know what you find out.  Lori

LaCh said:

Lori

I'm not 100% sure it was the tumor (maybe 95% sure) but I'm 100% sure it wasn't a skin tag.  I'll definitely let you know.   The more I think about it, the less strange it seems, keeping in mind that my tumor was pedunculated (on a stalk) and the treatment is going to kill the tumor so if it dies, the tether to the anal wall will weaken and it would have to go somewhere.   Maybe it's common but goes unrecognized, who knows. And while it probably won't alter very much the treatment protocol, I'm wondering how it can't alter it somewhat.  I mean, if a 5cm tumor receives a certain amount of targeted radiation and a 2 cm receives less, how much target radiation should the area now receive if this thing is no longer there?  (It's still in the underlying tissue, but again, I'm wondering; if this part died, what happened to the rest?)  That's why I need to speak to someone I trust and that person isn't the radio oncologist, it's my gastroenterologist.  Yes, it's good that I was able to retrieve the thing.  I'm kind of dying to know, myself...

I don't recall passing my tumor.  I would think this is totally possible though.  I would also have to believe that your treatment would remain on the same original course.  Just because the tumor may have been severed by the radiation, there may be remaining cancer cells that need to be zapped.  If it were me, I would want to complete the entire course of treatment to make sure all cancer is gone.  After all, you have no concrete proof that this tissue you passed was the tumor or the tumor in it's entirity.  Let us know what your gastro doc says.

LaCh said:

mp327

I will.  I'm not really sure what it is and the office is closed till Wednesday.  

I agree, totally possible. If nothing else its great that some of your pain internally is releived! We'll all be waiting to hear what you find out.

Haven't heard of this happening, but it's a possibility of something sloughing off. Sometimes I wondered if some of mine was sloughing off. I agree with the others that it's best to continue treatment to make sure all cancer cells get zapped. Anxious to hear the findings. Glad your internal pain is gone!

Ann

LaCh said:

azannie

Well, the localized internal pain is much less but the overall pooping pain is still abolutely excrutiating.  And I'm just two weeks and a bit more into it.  I wonder what it's going to be like in week 4? 5? 6? if it's so painful now.... 

Ask your docs for some Lidocaine cream.  You can try applying this to the anal area prior to a BM and it will numb things up.  It would at least be worth a try.

LaCh said:

mp327

Doesn't anything applied in or on need to be completely removed for radiation?  That's been my concern....   So far my pain is from the inside...  and I don't know how to assure that it's completely voided. 

Sorry.  I misread your previous comment where you stated this pain was internal.  I'm not sure anything can be done about that.

LaCh said:

mp327

No, that's ok, don't give it a second thought.  Between the excruciating pain in my as* and the increasingly painful neuropathy in my knee, plus the constant discomfort from the port (currently not in use), if not for the high stakes and gravity of the situation, all of this might actually seem funny.  But...  it isn't.... 

I don't know if your taking any pain meds, but that got me through the roughest parts of the pain.  I only took them after I came back from radiation.  I only used them for a couple of months and that was it.  It really helped also, the daily bath before radiation.