Frightened in Richmond Texas

Rush ?
Re:
"The surgeon concurred with Dr. and I am scheduled for surgery (no
lap, regular incision) on Monday."

"He said he didn't know if it was cancer or not but the mass will
eventually cause a blockage"

And the rush is for what reason?

You should get a "second opinion" from a gastrointestinal specialist,
who is not a member of the same group your doctor is in.

You should also get a second opinion from a colorectal surgeon
that is also not in the same group or area.

You should ask why you can't have laproscopical surgery, or try
other methods to shrink the growth.

Take a friend with you to take notes on each and every visit. It's easy
to forget important details when you're upset listening to the doctor.

And well before surgery, you must take the time to know exactly
what they plan to do; if it will leave you with an ostomy or not.

If it will, then you must take the time to indicate exactly where
you want the ostomy, and the details associated with the placement
of the stoma.

Do not rush. Take your time and get ALL the answers ahead of time.
Make sure you understand all the answers. If you feel you do not
want to allow them to do something, do not allow it.

It's your life at stake; it's your quality of life, and only you can
make decisions regarding it.

I have the same question
What is the rush? "eventually cause a blockage"

If the mass is not large enough to cause a lot of trouble right now, with worry for obstruction immediately, then you have time to get more information and make more informed decisions.

I had no choice - my tumor was almost completely blocking (I had been living with severe pain for quite some time). I was told I needed surgery within the next 2-3 days and if I waited longer than that I was certainly chancing total blockage. I was kept on liquids only after my scope to help prevent that, and to stay prepared for surgery. My pre-op consult with the surgeon was scheduled for the next morning with surgery the following day.

I did still find time to jump online in the morning before going to the surgeon. I read about "minimally invasive" colon surgery and was glad I did. The surgeon assigned to me did not do left side laproscopic surgery - only right side. So I insisted on getting one that would do it for sigmoid. He did warn me that not every tumor comes out as easy as expected, and I could still end up with open surgery in the end. But I was lucky and had lap. My surgeon uses the same procedure as he does for appendectomies. 8 weeks later you couldn't hardly even see the scar! It is amazing. And I healed very quickly from my surgery too.

It is definitely worth pursuing if there is any way to have yours lap rather than open.

Surgery
Mary109,
I know this is scary, I had a resection done on September 14th, I'm early 50's. I knew I was dealing with cancer but I had not had a CT scan so we did not know if it was elsewhere. My surgeon did a regular incision because he wanted to look at everything inside. I was talking to my husband tonight about the fact that I had the regular incision and not a lap surgery because we were given more information and the surgeon was sure he got all of the tumor and he knew there was not anything visible lurking about. After we got the pathology report that is when they staged my cancer, IIIB. My CT scan done after surgery did not show any other problems in my chest, abdomen or pelvis.

Your first concern is to have the surgery so you do not become obstructed. If that happens you have other issues to deal with. Getting the mass out is really important. My tumor was almost obstructing the bowel so I was on a low residue diet and surgery soon followed my colonoscopy. Between now and the time you have surgery try to get a good walk every day, it will help in your recovery.

The surgery was not complicated by anything and I did great. After surgery my family made sure that I did my deep breathing and moved my feet and legs. Then when it was time to get up and get moving they were there to help. The surgeon and the nurses told me that to wake up my bowel I needed to walk but I also needed to get up out of bed frequently. They said the short trips out of bed helped more than the long walks. If family is not there with you make sure that you take the initiative to do these things with help from the hospital staff, it does help get going and prevents ugly complications.

Pain needs to be addressed. I was given dilaudid IV every 2 hours. I had problems with nausea so they added phenergan and I was good to go. Don't be afraid to take the pain meds especially the first few days and if things are not to your liking please speak up and tell the staff and your doctor. You will also be given antibiotics so if you have prolems with ANY type of yeast infection please let the doctor know so you can get meds to treat.

When they tell you it is time to eat, take it slowly. Clear liquids to start and then advance to full liquids and then a soft diet this is over a period of days. Don't go right to the chicken fried steak! (I know of a person who did that and ended back in the hospital with problems.)

O.k. that is the technical stuff, now to the emotional stuff. Take a deep breath and realize this has to be done, but this is what medical people call "an insult to your body" so you will have emotions, this is part of it and you need to let it out. We all try to be brave but you are a person who is experiencing a difficult time. Since you don't know what the mass is you need to know that you are doing the best thing for your self and you will learn what it is and deal with it when the reports come back. Your job at hand is to recover, be good to your self, take time to care for your needs, and know that we are all here for you if you need to talk, vent, rant, cry and just chat.

Make sure you accept help from those who offer! Make sure you tell those around you what is going on, and ask for help from family friends etc. I am a private person and did not want to tell anyone, my husband told everyone and that was helpful!

We will all ask you about the CT scan if it showed anything else besides the mass, and if the mass was confined to the bowel.

Take care and let us know you are doing, when surgery will be scheduled etc. The people here will pray, send you hugs, good vibes etc for you and it is nice to know they are here.

Jan
PS Mary I just read about your CT scan. I did not get a second opinion for surgery. I do agree that second opinions are important, and did get one when it came time to treat the cancer, but mostly you need to be comfortable with what is happening, a second opinion can help with that but you need to decide if you need one.

Also I am in Texas.

Hi Mary
Welcome to the board although we all wish you did not have to be here. That being said, where is the mass in your colon? That could make a difference in whether they need to do the surgery soon or whether you can buy a little time. George's mass was in the transverse colon. His colonoscopy was 3/27, then things moved fast. Met with colorectal surgeon, met with oncologist, had all testing CT's, consults etc. and surgery was on 4/2 and he was home on 4/8 and 4 weeks later started chemo. At the time we didn't seek out a second opinion, the colonoscopy pictures spoke for themselves. Our team was competent, very well qualified, specialists in their field, board certified, explained everything thoroughly and we went with it with very good results. Take a deep breath, your journey is just beginning and know that you can come on here with any question you may have, large or small. Take care - Tina