Another update to my husband's colonoscopy

To refresh - my husband had his first colonoscopy in March. They found 3 flat polyps that were removed and the biopsies showed no cancer, but that they were the type that could turn to cancer. They also found two "wierd" things that the doctor wasn't sure about. These were larger. He is pretty famous around here as a great doctor, so it was odd he'd never seen it, and neither had his collegues. He bioipsied to see what he was dealing with, rather than risk removing larger unknown things during colonoscopy, if surgery would be indicated. The biopsy said that they were polyps afterall - but a type that wouldn't turn to cancer. So a repeat colonoscopy was scheduled to remove them. Along with that, an upper GI was scheduled for all the troubles he's had as many years as he can remember. His troubles were beyond your normal heartburn, and included a lot of vomiting. When I told the GI doctor, he said he suspected an obstruction of some sort.

First the upper GI. They found a stricture which they used a balloon-like thing to stretch it out with. He also had little ulcers from his acid reflux. So he was put on omemprazole. We took ours together each morning for a few weeks, but I've stopped mine now. He has had this trouble all his life. I had no trouble till chemo.

The great news is this man who has suffered for years - getting up repeatedly all night long anytime he eats after 4PM, and especially if he has red meat, tomatoes or garlic, vomiting often and generally miserable, can now eat what he wants, when he wants! Even with our late night dinners in Mexico (including some spicey stuff), he can lay down and go to sleep and stay that way - no heartburn, no vomiting!

The bad news is I just got off the phone with the doctor's office because we didn't get the letter with his results. They biopsied those two larger polyps they took out of his colon - no cancer in them, but they turned out to actually be the type of tumor that can turn to cancer. That means 5 of that type - three flat ones that were smaller and removed at the original colonoscopy, and two large ones removed a month later after they verified they were polyps (they were very odd and the doctor hadn't seen anything that looked like that before). So he has to repeat his colonoscopy in one year due to so many polyps found this time. The weird thing is they told us before that they were not the type to turn to cancer, but did need to come out so they wouldn't obstruct him. But this biopsy showed they were the type that turns to cancer. Very strange. It must be that some areas of them were different than the others, because they did small biopsies the first time to see what they were. The second biopsy was done on the full polyp after removal. He tested negative for H Pylori, but positive for Barrett's. More bad news. Barrett's can eventually turn to espophageal cancer. So he needs to repeat the upper GI in one year also.

After all this, I truly feel that my colon cancer probably saved my husband from dealing with colon cancer or esophageal cancer. If he'd continued to go untreated, he eventually may have had both. The nightmare of the last year is all worth it if it has spared him going through all this. Or worse yet, if he was diagnosed too late with espophageal cancer like my uncle and nothing could be done.

Everything for a reason.