Colon Cancer related to breast cancer??!?!

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  • Calico
    Calico Member Posts: 1,108
    edited April 2009

    Deb,

    praying for benign results.

    Nadine,

    hugs and prayers for you too.

    I have a good story in case it is colon cancer:

    My DS had a 2 inch (5 cm) colon cancer diagnosis 2 yrs ago at age 48, she is fine today!!! Had Xeloda and a platinum based chemo oxipalatin (sp?), did not lose her hair and is peachy again.

    I so hope that all works out for the both of you, Nadine and Deb.

    Hugs!!!

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  • WellWater
    WellWater Member Posts: 6,546
    edited April 2009

    Deb:  OMG, I'm so sorry.  I have not been on the board for several weeks due to some things going on around here and then logged in last night to read this!  I PM'd Greg for some info and will get up to the hospital to see you.  I'm am praying that God gives you, Greg and Daniel all the strength required to get thru this crisis.  You little sweetheart, I hate what this is doing to you.

    Love Tring

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  • WellWater
    WellWater Member Posts: 6,546
    edited April 2009

    I just spoke to Deb - she was told a few minutes ago that it is definitely cancer.  She was unable to talk much so I didn't want to ask too many questions.  I'll get up to see her tomorrow.  My heart is breaking for this wonderful young woman - please keep her in your prayers.

    Trina

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    Trina,

    Thank you for letting us know...Do you have her mailing address so we can shower her with cards? If you do please pm it to me.

    Also when you visit her please give her my hug and tell her that we are all keeping her in our prayers.

    Jule

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  • ICanDoThis
    ICanDoThis Member Posts: 1,473
    edited April 2009

    I agree - card shower seems called for.

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  • Margerie
    Margerie Member Posts: 526
    edited April 2009

    OMG Deb, I am so sorry!!

    We will be here for you and you can hit the ground running and this in the dust!  Keep faith and be strong.  Thinking of you and yours,

    Margerie

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  • WellWater
    WellWater Member Posts: 6,546
    edited April 2009

    I have a call in to her husband to get her home address since I'm not sure how long she'll be in the hospital - I will let you know and pm it to those who would like to do a card shower....

     thanks, Trina

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  • AnnaM
    AnnaM Member Posts: 1,387
    edited April 2009

    Deb, I am so sorry to hear this news. You are in my prayers....

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  • WellWater
    WellWater Member Posts: 6,546
    edited April 2009

    Just talked to her hubby...

    Cancer is Stage 1 Grade 1 - clear margins, no lymph node involvement and NO further tx at this time.  Onc said looks very good.

    They appreciate your concern, your prayers and your support!

    If you want to send a card, please PM me and I'll send the address - I'm not comfortable posting it due to scammers and stalkers. 

    Thanks, Trina

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  • Calico
    Calico Member Posts: 1,108
    edited April 2009

    Trina,

    thank you for the update.

    That's the same stage my sister had, one comfort having such a big tumor. This is indeed very good considering the circumstances that it is cancer. My GI doc told me when I inquired about risk with having a relative w. colon cancer and me having breast, he said that of the both of them colon cancer is the nicer one, a good chance to cure....wanted to pass that on with much hope for a recovery!!!!!

    Please pass on my hugs, prayers and vibes to Deb.

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  • cp418
    cp418 Member Posts: 7,079
    edited April 2009

    Deb - I'm sorry to hear your polyp was not benign.  However, keep in mind you caught it EARLY and removed it with surgery only.  When you feel better do the happy dance that it was found early and now it is GONE!!!  Best wishes for a speedy recovery!! Joann 

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  • Margerie
    Margerie Member Posts: 526
    edited April 2009

    Thank goodness no further treatment!!!!  Rest up angel, you will have better days ahead.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    Thanks to Trina for posting an update.  Debbie is doing well and getting better everyday.  Hopefully she will be back posting again herself in the next few days.  I will show her your posts tonight at the hospital.

     Greg, Debbie, and Daniel

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  • AnnNYC
    AnnNYC Member Posts: 4,484
    edited April 2009

    Greg, thanks so much for keeping us updated!

    Deb, you've been in my thoughts constantly!

    Hugs to ((((((all 3 of you))))) !

    Ann

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  • candie1971
    candie1971 Member Posts: 4,820
    edited April 2009

    Deb, you are in my prayers and I am so glad no more treatment!! Your sisters are here for u!!!

    Greg thanks for posting.

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  • susan_CNY
    susan_CNY Member Posts: 276
    edited April 2009

    so happy to hear benign! hope you heal fast, when I started walking around again I did laps around my big dining room table so I could hang on if I needed, that was when I really started feeling stronger, just don't overdo

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  • NadineS
    NadineS Member Posts: 15
    edited April 2009

    I went for a surgical consult today and got more news.  Bizarrely enough, this appears to be a whole new cancer and not great either.  They think it is likely a  Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) or it may be lymphoma.  Either way not good but better than metastatic disease.  However, my tumor is 11 cm by 8 cm.  Not good.  Other than the issues I am having because of its size, I am feeling fine.  I don't have the other symptoms of lymphoma, so it is likely GIST.  It is so strange.  I don't have family history for either breast or this new cancer and I'm only 42.  I've never smoked and generally led a healthy lifestyle.  The surgeon said this is lottery odds that this would happen to me.  However, I am somewhat hopeful given that there is chance of cure with GIST.  My next step will be to have a surgical biopsy.

     Thanks for everyone's support.

     Nadine

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  • lexislove
    lexislove Member Posts: 2,645
    edited April 2009

    Nadine I'm sorry about your news. I have heard about GIST but don't know much about it. Keep us posted on your biopsy and treatments. I don't think it is Lymphoma either

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  • footprintsangel
    footprintsangel Member Posts: 43,890
    edited April 2009

    Dear Deb, My pray are with you and that the Lord will comfort you threw this. I had colon rectal cancer in 2001 and was on the bag, it was for awhile and was happy to here stage 1. I know you can do it with the Lords help. God bless you. Debbie too

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  • english
    english Member Posts: 6
    edited April 2009

    Hi everyone.  Firstly, there isn't one pill, there are lots of pills (you have to take lots to get the same effects as phosphosoda etc).  Secondly, Whoopsie, please switch to a GI doc with some heart...if the news is bad, you at least need someone with tact.  I had my over 50 routine colonoscopy @ 52 1/2, about a year before my BC diag.  I had one small polyp and was told to "come back in 10 yrs".  My Onc doc obtained my path and the polyp was an adenoma and she told me I should have a 2 yr follow-up in light of the path and the BC.  My GI doc completely disagrees and states the connection between BC and CC is "frail".  He then offered to "split the difference" and said to come back in 5 yrs.  He was put out by the fact I went to his office after the news from my Onc doc and questioned why he had not changed the call-back time from 10 yrs.  (He waited 2 weeks to call me following my visit to his office).  Anyway, I will be going to a different GI doc for my 2 yr follow-up even though like most of us, I hate the prep.  Better safe than sorry.  By the way, I work in the same hospital as my GI doc and he knows me very well.....

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    My sweetest and most loving Elephant Sisters,

    It is GOOD TO BE HOME!  
    I came home last night at about 8 pm. 

    This has been one heckuva journey, that is what I can tell you.  This surgery has been the most difficult recovery of any of the 14 surgeries I have had in my life. 

    I had the positively worst nurse aide of my entire life.  My first night in the hospital, she came in and yanked the pillows from behind me without giving me any warning.  She yanked a pillow from behind my head without any warning.  When she tried to get me up walking the next morning, she yanked ME up without warning. 

    Every time she did this, I would burst into the worst pain/stomach spasms of my entire life. 

    The spasms would last from anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours at a time.  I couldn't even breathe when they'd start.  I squeezed the hell out of Greg's hand when I tried to walk the halls on Saturday, because if I even lightly bumped him, I'd have a spasm. 

    Again. 

    It was positively awful.  I didn't think I'd ever recover.  I was so proud of myself for actually walking to the nurse's station and making it back to my room.  Of course, that was only a few feet, but when I got back, I was gasping for air. 

    I had an NG tube, which was quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever experienced.  I couldn't lift my head all the way up because it pulled on my nose in the worst way ever.  I couldn't swallow, and if I did, it hurt something awful! 

    When they finally removed that bleepity-bleepin' tube from my nose, I felt like they stabbed my brain with a ball-point pen.  In fact, that is what I told them.  It hurt, felt bizarre, and felt SO GOOD to get it out.  

    I was known as "Oh, you're the patient who is out walking!"  That is how everyone spoke to me, because I had my butt out walking laps CONSTANTLY.  It felt great for people to tell me each time they saw me that I was looking better and better and better.   That is exactly what I was aiming for! 

    I was out walking with a student nurse named Amanda.  She was a nervous wreck, as this was her second week on clinicals.   I was doing my best to assure her that I didn't care what she did, I had been through it all already, but of course that was the day my PCP came to me in the hall and said in a solemn tone, "I need to talk to you....." 

    Poor Amanda.  I thought she was going to burst into tears. 

    I knew right away.  That is what I say all along, "YOU KNOW WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!!!!!!" 

    As I walked into my room, I asked, "What stage?" 

    Doc was a little surprised, and stumbled through the path report....."Well differentiated, stage 1, 1 inch in size, blahblahblah......" 

    Me: "Do I need chemo?"  (small voice.....)

    Him: "I will get an oncologist to you asap and he can tell you all of that." 

    I glance at Amanda, who suddenly has the need to stare deep into her stethoscope.  Poor kiddo.

    I didn't cry, oddly enough.   Turns out, there is a very teensy genetic mutation that does indeed make one a lucky gal who can get all kinds of cancer. 

    Yep, that's me!  So, there is no telling what I do now.  I now feel like I have no control in my medical life, other than I have to be extremely aware of every single twinge. 


    Oye. 

    Now, for other things.  I am recovering.  I am moving slowly, I am aching for a shower! 

    What else am I?  Grateful.  I know my Elephants were there,  I heard some of you sound a trumpet call through your trunks.  

    I could feel your trunks wrap around me when the nurses surrounded me to try and get me in the hospital bed.  I could feel your trunks wrap around me when I had spasms shoot through my very core. 

    I am just so grateful to have my sisters.  Thank you so much for the love.  I do openly ask that I remain on prayer lists so I may recover, take care of my baby, and take care of my family again. 

    I also ask that I remain on prayer lists so that I can perhaps evade any more cancer.  Come on, Stage 0 ovarian cancer, Stage IIa/IIb breast cancer, and Stage I colon cancer!?!??!!??!?!?!??!?!?! 


    OYE! 

    I love you all so much.  Thank you!   Love and prayers, Deb 

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009
    PPS-Osmoprep was about 100000000000000000000000000000 times easier to take than Moviprep.  

    SOOOOOOOOOO much easier.  Yes, I felt oogy, but as long as you drink tons of water before, and during, it was okay.  I kept several bottles of water in the bathroom to have on hand!  ha ha, I know that is nuts but it is true! 
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  • AnnNYC
    AnnNYC Member Posts: 4,484
    edited April 2009

    Deb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    So happy to hear from you, and so glad you are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Millions of hugs and kisses -- virtual ones, until such time as they will physically feel good !!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Love you,

    Ann

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  • ICanDoThis
    ICanDoThis Member Posts: 1,473
    edited April 2009

    DEB!!

    So good to hear from you. I'm glad you're getting better. We were all there, you should have seen the surprised looks from all the visitors in the hospital lobby as we skulked behind the lobby plants. It's so hard for elephants to be inconspicuous.

    I know that you're bummed at yet another cancer diagnosis, but you are also really good at detecting it, and getting it out of you!

    Will keep you in my heart, and my fingers will be crossed.

    Sue

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    Deb----I'm so sorry to hear it was so rough----I remember when my mom had her  2 hemicolectomy surgeries--it was much more difficult than her lumpectomy/ALND/or radiation (because they are moving around all those internal organs and cutting thru muscle)--I can relate to your pain, I had a TAH/BSO about 4 years ago and it was a really rough recovery. But so glad to hear you're on the mend. Hopefully, no chemo or rads needed? (by the way, my mom is doing very well over years post colon cancer, 22 years after bc, at age 80!) You will be at the top of my prayer list Deb.

    Anne

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    Layne, I heard that tray knock over!   Which one of you was that?!  I also saw some of you pacing the hallway outside the OR.  Thank you.  And most certainly, THANK YOU for THWACKING the aide upside the head! 
    I sheepishly admit I "turned her in," and it turns out, I wasn't the first one to complain.  harumpfh! 

    I gotta say, I am just so darned glad I didn't wake up during this surgery! 

    It is GOOD to be back, dear friends. 

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  • Traci-----TripNeg
    Traci-----TripNeg Member Posts: 2,298
    edited April 2009

    Debbie.....you are sooooooo awesome.....and funny!!! I love you girl.

    ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

    Traci

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  • lvtwoqlt
    lvtwoqlt Member Posts: 6,162
    edited April 2009

    Deb, this elephant sister was there with you, I didn't think I knocked that tray over in the OR, I was just trying to get out of the way. I am glad you are home where you can recouperate in peace. My MIL had the same surgery in February and spent 3 weeks in the hospital with some high blood pressure complications.

    Again it is good to see you back among the heard.

    Sheila

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2009

    Deb - You "sound" good... hang in there! Did you hear a thump too? That was me... I put out my foot and tripped the aide. lol Be well soon!

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  • susan_CNY
    susan_CNY Member Posts: 276
    edited April 2009

    wow Deb, you are a strong lady! I was 8 days in ICU and another 5 in a regular room after my hemicolectomy (I did have my right lung collapse 3 days out of surgery so needed breathing treatments also) I just love your spunk, aides can be annoying,  Sorry you are in pain, I was kept quite drugged up for a week (loopy actually) , found my partial mast and SNB to be more painful.My follow up (after chemo) was a colonoscopy 1 yr later, then 3, and now 5! My onco says cured! I often wonder still though, my Dad had twice, I am #6 in family to have this. Worry so for my children.

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