Pulmonary/Abdominal Mets

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SpouseDx0108
SpouseDx0108 Member Posts: 20
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
History:
Dx CRC, January 2008
Resection, colostomy, March 2008
Recurrence discovered in pelvic region, January 2009
Chemo/Radiation, February-March 2009
Bowel Obstruction surgery, November 2009
Metastases - pulmonary and abdominal, March 2010

Took my husband to the ER on Monday, March 22. He was having severe back pain, nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, abdominal pain, sleeping much of the day, unable to empty his bladder (attempting to urinate every 30 minutes, but only partially successful each time).

His "renals" were up, as were his blood pressure and pulse. Once they catheterized him, he felt better immediately and he perked right up. They hospitalized him to keep an eye on his progress...released today.

CT scan revealed that there is another small bowel obstruction (partial at this time). Their plan is to wait and see whether chemo will clear it up. He was supposed to start yesterday, but they've postponed it until March 30.

My husband doesn't seem to want to know where the doctors feel we are in this, so I spoke to one of them outside his earshot. He said that the situation is "bad," the lesions are nonresectable, and that the disease is very aggressive.

Has anyone had a similar situation? I've seen a few people here talk about surviving some pretty bleak odds and are still fighting the good fight.

Also, I can find a boat-load of information on hepatic mets, but there seems to be very little info out there about pulmonary mets. Apparently, it isn't as common.

Comments

  • dianetavegia
    dianetavegia Member Posts: 1,942 Member
    #2
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    Hi Spouse, I'm so sorry to
    Hi Spouse, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband.

    The only time I've ever heard of colon cancer spreading to the heart is a woman in my county who was dx'd when she thought she was having a heart attack and it ended up being end stage colon cancer. Mom of 8 with the youngest 17 months old....

    How old is hubby? It does sound like he is very sick.
  • msccolon
    msccolon Member Posts: 1,917 Member
    #3
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    pulmonary and abdominal mets are common with crc
    mets to the lungs and abdomen are very common with colon cancer. I haven't had mets to the lungs, but if you think about it, the entire abdominal cavity is game, since that's where the cancer begins growing and possibly has grown beyond the outside of the colon. As far as the lungs, once the cancer gets into the lymph system it's game on for any distant organ and since the lungs receive the blood for oxygenation, it makes sense that it can commonly spread there; same goes for the liver. There are lots of people on here who are living with lung mets and treatment seems to be very promising.
    mary
  • SpouseDx0108
    SpouseDx0108 Member Posts: 20
    #4
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    dianetavegia said:

    Hi Spouse, I'm so sorry to
    Hi Spouse, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband.

    The only time I've ever heard of colon cancer spreading to the heart is a woman in my county who was dx'd when she thought she was having a heart attack and it ended up being end stage colon cancer. Mom of 8 with the youngest 17 months old....

    How old is hubby? It does sound like he is very sick.

    It's lungs
    I'm sorry, I should have clarified that it's in his lungs (not heart). That's so sad about the mom of eight :(

    My husband is 50.
  • SpouseDx0108
    SpouseDx0108 Member Posts: 20
    #5
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    msccolon said:

    pulmonary and abdominal mets are common with crc
    mets to the lungs and abdomen are very common with colon cancer. I haven't had mets to the lungs, but if you think about it, the entire abdominal cavity is game, since that's where the cancer begins growing and possibly has grown beyond the outside of the colon. As far as the lungs, once the cancer gets into the lymph system it's game on for any distant organ and since the lungs receive the blood for oxygenation, it makes sense that it can commonly spread there; same goes for the liver. There are lots of people on here who are living with lung mets and treatment seems to be very promising.
    mary

    Thank you
    Thank you for this information. I'm going to browse around and see if I can find some of those who have lung mets and read what they have to say concerning their treatment, etc.

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