Small Bowel Cancer

Hi there,

I just wanted to introduce myself and maybe get some infor and advice and information from all of you. I haven't officially been diagnosed with cancer yet, so I don't know a specific type or staging. But from all the tests so far, it looks like things are going that way. The cancer is actually small bowel, but I know that's rare. So I figured that colorectal cancer is similar enough to maybe get some help here.

Here's a brief summary of what is going on. I am a 27 year old, otherwise healthy female. But for the last few months, I have been feeling nauseous and contstantly run down. I went to a few doctors with no help, but finally I had one order a CT. They found a large mass in between my duodenum and jejunum, so they recommended an endoscopy. I had that, and they found a 6cm large polyp. They couldn't take it out there because it was too big, but they biopsied it and the results came back negative. They told me they still weren't sure, however, and that they would need to wait until the whole thing was removed to say for sure that it is or isn't cancer. I went to see a surgical oncologist to get ready for a bowel resection, but she has ordered a colonoscopy and lung CT scan first to rule out metastesis. The CT showed a single large lymph node in the mesentery near my cecum, and she said that is concerning. She will need to remove this lymph node first and look to see if it shows cancer. If not, then she will perform the resection and determine if there is cancer in the polyp or in the lymph nodes surrounding the poly. If so, then she will assume the cancer has metastocized and begin pallative care and chemotherapy.

I'm scared and confused right now, so any advice or information you can give would be much appreciated. I've heard that the waiting is one of the worst parts.

Best,

Nicole