Signet Ring Cell Adenocarcinoma of Rectum

A family member was diagnosed with this type of cancer in May 2017 by a vascualar surgeon #1 who told her she had between 1-3 years to live.  At the time a different vascular surgeon #2, in concert with her GP and 1st Oncologist, began treating and testing her for an abdominal aneurism, heart disease and high cholesterol, and ring cell cancer.  She has seen many different doctors since then.  And I'm not going into all the details of the up and down battles with all the doctors she has seen.  But I can say this, she has been put through the ringer.

So far she has seen three (3) Oncologists at the same hospital and one (1) Radiologist and has endured many tests both locally and several miles away from her home.  It took about 4-months for her cancer treatment to begin.  She has about 4- treatments left and then she will wait two months for that to heal.  Then they will do surgery to remove the tumor.  I haven't said anything to her, but I fear what that surgery may entail.  I've read so much about resection surgeries for persons with this type of cancer.  But I pray and hang onto hope for her recovery.

Along with the radiation, she takes 3-pills in the a.m. and 3-pills in the p.m. on days she receives radiation treatment.  The chemo medicine is generic for Xeloda 500 mg--Capecitabine.  She is taking 180 centiGrays (cGy) of radiation, 5 days a week until she reaches 4,500 cGy.

At one point in her treatment she was in horrible pain in her rectum and vagina.  And any time she called the staff at the cancer center, they would tell her to go to ER.  She finally went to a hospital ER that was 50 miles from her local ER hospital.  And that ER doctor confirmed she had a tear between her anus and vagina.  Unfortunatley the cream this doctor prescribed did nothing to relieve her discomfort.  Her pain was so bad over a duration of time she was threatening suicide, but fortunately, she would talk to people close to her when she felt that way.

What ires me, is none of these damn doctors who are highly trained and educated prescribed effective pain relief cream.  It was ME! who told her about sulfadane (sp-?) cream.  That cream worked for me when I endured treatment for anal cancer 4-years ago.  It's the wrong pronunciation but somehow she communicated that cream to her radiologist and he prescribed it for her.  The cream worked so well, it cleared up her problem in two! days.  Now WHY! didn't her Oncologist think of that when she first complained about the burning pain?  Why did they let her suffer for so long?

Thanks for listening.  Many blessing to Everyone.

CB