Newly diagnosed

> Can tell you about the surgery. The recovery time for laproscopic surgery is a few days now. They will kick you out of the hospital bed ASAP. lol. It's not so bad as far as pain goes. Enjoy your medication and relax.

Yes, I was told the hospital stay should be around 5-7 days depends on how the surgery is done and how I recover. Hydromorphone will be given for pain management. I remember its crazy dizziness back in the days of a bad trauma experience. Probably, that was why I fear the pain that much.

> It is increasingly common for people to have III CRC, sadly.

I think some polyps must have been growing there for years, but I was never asked to do any colonoscopy. My family doctor knew I had a bloody diarrhea drama last year, but I had fever and infections as well. They thought that was caused by a bowel infection. I really wish I had insisted to do a colonoscopy so I don't see Stage III as today.

> Glad that you don't have to have a complete colectomy, and welcome to the forum

The surgeon says they will keep my colon as much as possible, but it will be decided once they see the situation inside. There is still a low chance to directly connect my small intestine to the rectum with all the colon removed.

Thank you very much, Trubrit!

> Your reactions are standard, and there will come a time - probably during surgery recovery, when it will hit you like a ton of bricks. Your emotions may be all over the place at that time, but its all par for the course.

I'm trying to distract myself these 2 days before the surgery. I've read enough things and I know there is nothing else I can do from my side.
I'll see what that will be tomorrow afternoon when this is done:)

> My surgery on the other hand was open, thus the recovery was somewhat different that what yours will be, if it is keyhole.  All I will say about surgery is 'listen to your surgeon' if he says 'Don't Do.....' then you don't do it.  You can start feeling great on the outside, long before the insides are healed, so if the surgeon says don't lift until six weeks, then don't lift.   I suffer to this day - seven years from my liver ablation, becasue I thought my body was ready, when in fact it was just my head that was ready.

Thank you very much for this advice! I will definitely remember the instructions from the doctor!

Actually, after seeing your message here, I did all possible heavy-lifting works (e.g. winter house maintenance) in the next 6 months this afternoon.

> Here is a tip for post surgery. WALK! When they tell you to get out of bed, do it, and walk, walk, walk.  This is most important if you ended up having open surgery, but with laparoscapy surgery, it won't be as painful, but just as necessary.

Yes, this is important to let gravity pull the organs, so they find the right place to grow back. There will be adhesions, and it needs the walk and gravity to shape it correctly.

I heard the patients are encouraged to get off the bed one day after the surgery for this purpose. Will see. 

> Drink lots of fluid - which of course we should be doing in any case.

Absolutely. I was on clear fluid food for 2 weeks now. I can't imagine I could survive with only drinking apple juice and clear BOOST! I feel water has been the only thing I'm drinking and I drank a lot

> Telling your family is your personal decision - for me, I told EVERYONE, and everyone was either praying or sending those good loving vibes. That really, really helped me.  As a parent, I would most definitely want my boys to tell me.  But, that is just how I feel. It is your life to make your own decisions with.

This is a tough situation in my family. My parents are not healthy themselves with heart and other conditions recently. I don't want to stress them anymore. And I feel it might not be a bad idea until my situation and their situation get settled a little bit. 

Luckily, I have a fiancée who didn't give me up and has been supporting me very positively. We were hoping to get married in the next few months and now we got this cancer here. I really appreciate what she has been doing to me, and I don't feel I will fail her going through this process;)

Thanks, DanNH!

My mother had a few complicated health situations recently involving the heart and multiple hormone disorders. I was trying to help her, when I found myself having cancer.

I feel it is probably the worst time I can tell her this news. So keeping this for a short time until her situation and my situation settled down a bit.

Meanwhile, I have a very positive and lovely fiancée who didn't give me up and has been supporting me. I was supposed to give her a good marriage as this Covid pandemic calms down, but now we probably will go through more tests to get there. I won't fail her. 

Just want to update my status!

The colon resection surgery was on Oct 20 and it was successful with left colectomy. It starts around 8:30am and ends at 2:30-3pm. Two large tumors were removed with laparoscopy as well as an 3-inch incision to take out the mass. Before the surgery, instead of being pushed in on a bed, I was able to walk into the surgery room myself, passing by the busy corridor with operation rooms, and seeing other patients being operated on. What a sightseeing!  

The doctor said one of my cancer tumors was very large and stuck in between abdominal walls. They would rate that one to be T4 grade. Many lymph nodes were removed and only pathology reports can tell if they're ok. With two tumors 12-inch apart, the doctors said she won't be surprised if more than one lymph node to be affected. So I'll be likely at stage 3C, or in the best case for 2C.

The pain is well controlled. I had really bad side effects and experiences from hydromorphone and ketamin, so I was given some non-opioid options from day 0 to day 2. And then I was on minimum oral pills since then.

At my 30s age, I've been recovering very fast. I could stand up on Day 0, walk around for 10+ laps on Day 1, and pass gas and some stools (not really stool, but greenish things like bile?) on Day 2.
The gas pains were crazily painful from Day 1 to Day 2, and the doctor says no pain relief can solve it until I passed the gas. I was lucky to get it sorted out this fast.
There was also a complication with stomach/bile reflux on Day 1, when I drank way too much on Day 0. I didn't know my stomach was not working, so all those drinks stuck there. After vomiting more than 3 pints (yes, that much) of fluids, I felt much relieved and never got any problem since then. 

I was on NPO (no food/drink) on Day 0-2, and I felt extremely hungry after passing gas. But on day 3, they surprised me by giving me food like eggs, fruits, grilled chicken (really?), mashed potato and etc. It took me 5 hours to eat that since I have been on fluids and NPO for 3 weeks. 

On Day 4, I was discharged from the hospital. They said my incisions had been healing well and my bowel functions were restored.

Emotionally, I think I'm well adapted. There were not many dark moments yet. There are still many unknowns. I'm preparing myself for chemo and other worse cases (e.g. metastasis after surgery).  

Some questions:

• This is probably embarrassing to ask, but did anyone experience the serious scrotal swelling? On Day 4, I went to Costco pharmacy to pick up my painkillers after being discharged, and they said this will need 30min, so I shopped around for 1.5 hours (yes, I know this is crazy for only 4 days after surgery), and then I found my testicles were bigger than baseball with lots of fluids in there. It was so big that my penis was fully sunk into the swelling mass and I can't find it. That scared me so much and I went back to the Emergency room. After 4 hours, the swollen seemed to get smaller, and I was able to pee. Then I was discharged again saying this is normal after an abdominal surgery where fluids like lymph flow to the lower part of the body. For males, this means the scrotal area. After applying ice for the next two days, they're not back to normal yet but definitely smaller now. I assume it's a piece of good general advice for NOT WALK THAT MUCH after surgery!
  I know this is not a usual topic to talk about  
  

• How many days did you wait until any shower was taken? How often do you take shower during recovery? the doctor says I can go shower after 48 hours of surgery, but there was a large 3-inch incision they said it was glued well. I did a shower on Day 4 night, but still feel uncomfortable doing a shower every day.
  
  
• The incision areas have been extremely itchy inside. It's not like infection, bloated, allergy, or anything bad, but just like the wounds are healing themselves. I have been doing my best to restrain myself not to scratch there. Is there any tip on this itchiness? 
  
  
• Some parts of my belly seem to lose the sense of touch around the incisions. I assume some nerves were damaged due to the incisions.  Is this normal? Does the sense of touch come back later?
  
  
• Is 3 week revisit too late? When usually do you meet the medical team after the surgery or being discharged?
  
  
• I have a low blood HGB around 110 (normal 130+) as well as low HCT, MCH, MCHC, before the surgery and 6 days after the surgery. They say this is common in colon cancer patients. Did you do anything to treat this after the surgery? Any tips? I heard the chemo may worsen this situation, so should I prep this before the chemo starts?

The next step is to discuss my pathology report findings 3 weeks later for next steps. Will keep updating.

Thanks for all your encouragement and support!