Lurch, did they not talk about the possibility of radiation or chemo to get the rest? Might want to get a second opinion. Mine was actually too large to remove right away, so I did 2 months of daily radiation and pill chemo before the removal surgery to shrink it, and another 3 months of both pill and IV chemo afterward. Overall, it was almost a year of awfulness (6 different surgeries involved in the process), but it was worth it. My last two CT scans and last colonoscopy were all clear. Don’t want to second-guess anybody or anything, but you might want to get a second opinion on treatment options.
Oho!
Guess what ? I have aged out, BUT, if the Doctor says get it I will. Why? well, being an adopted child I have had health issues my Parents( God Bless those two!) Didn’t have. They had the usual, Ulcers, Liver etc. Me, all mine so far have been Cardiac and Fixable! Thank God.
My grandmother( Great Grand) Had Cancer, and made me promise never to tell the family till she was gone! Thank God for Roswell Park memorial cancer center in Buffalo N/Y. I had her for twelve more years. It started as a simple Melanoma under her eye.She told Mom and Dad it was a mole! They passed before she did.
I kept my promise, she passed quietly after it had Metastasized into the forpart of her brain from the Eye Socket. I got emergency leave because she was the legal " Next of Kin" for me. That’s when I told the family. Haven’t had contact with anyone since. That was fifty five years ago! So if you need a Colonoscopy or a Biopsy, Get It!
I don’t recall the prep I went through in 1998, but when I had it this year, you get a couple of bottles of the nasty tasting prep and a large quart sized cup to top off with water.
I took a half day off from work the night before. I had contemplated drinking the first bottle at work and driving the 50 minute commute home, but I decided against that course of action.
When I got home, I prepared the drink in the kitchen and took a giant swig. I was talking with my wife and kids who were home, and within a few moments, I felt the need to pass gas. Nope, that wasn’t gas!
I hadn’t eaten anything but a bowl of instant ramen noodles at noon. Here it was at 8 o’clock and it was like my body was a fire hose.
I forced myself to finish the first “big gulp” of the mixture. After my stomach was empty, it passed the liquid instantly.
The next morning I was supposed to repeat the same drink. I only got about half of it down before it had cleaned me out again. It was amazing how fast the liquid you drinks comes straight out the other end.
I am so glad that I don’t have to do that, but may some day.
Rob, how is your wife? I really hope she’s getting back to her old self.
Bill
That would be far far better than a glitter bomb…
Here is a photo of the “cleaning fluid” that I drank. The baseball gives a sense of scale. The container holds a gallon of fluid. I drank 1/2 gallon (8 oz. at a time) at 4:00 in the afternoon on the day before the proceedure. The second dose was consumed at 6:00 in the morning on the day of the procedure. I placed the “cleaning fluid” in the fridge to get it nice and cold. I also mixed some lemon flavored Crystal Light into the fluid. I drank the stuff through a straw placed well back in my mouth. After finishing drinking the stuff I sucked on a lime wedge. The lime removed the nasty taste of the “cleaning fluid” from my mouth.
I used lime ice pops to kill the taste,but the crystal lite really made it tolerable compared to 1st two times I got it.
Eagle I had prostate cancer. They removed the prostate but found that it had spread to my ureathra and bladder. If they removed the cancer from there I would have had a cathetor for the rest of my life and that I would not be able to work and very strong restricktions again for the rest of my life. We are going to moniter it very closley and see what happens. They may need to dothat if it progresses but if doesnt progress then I dont have to do anything and live life normally. Its a waiting game at the moment. I just started back to work and working on getting things done around here now. So now I am praying for the best and waiting to see what happens.Had colonoscopy done and they took out polops that was cancer but all is good there for now.
Wish you the best and we’ll keep you in our thoughts & prayers. Keep the faith!
tjs
Thanks Mr. Tom I appreciate that. I have to keep the faith cause I have 5 grandkids that I want to be with as they grow up.They mean the world to me.
Ahhh…got it, Lurch. Thanks for the clarification. I’m really wary these days of what a doctor says, because the first doctor I saw for the symptoms I was experiencing sent me home with a list of OTC laxatives and when I asked him “But, don’t you think you should do more testing?”, he replied by saying “Oh. You mean like a colonoscopy? You’re too young for that. I could write a referral for one, but, they won’t find anything.” The guy literally almost cost me my life. If I hadn’t gotten the second opinion a couple of weeks later (not good news), I probably wouldn’t still be here.
Eagle
Unreal the lack of care that first doctor gave you. I’m sure many patients in your position would just think it’s great news and never seek another opinion. I’m sure that little voice in your head told you something just isn’t right. The point of this post is to listen to that voice. It’s been my experience that intuition is usually right.
I wish all my modeling buddies good health.
Thanks for asking, she is well, but still a bit of a “barracks rat” and doesn’t strive to get out and about unless someone drags her out.
Paul,
Thinking it was great news was exactly what my initial reaction was. That doctor seemed so confident that it was nothing serious that I felt a huge amount of relief, I remember getting to my car after the appointment and I was ecstatic…even shouting “Not cancer! YES!”. But, the already severe pain just got worse, I was only getting an hour of sleep every night, and could barely function on our annual 4th of July camping trip. It was definitely time for that second opinion at that point. During the course of treatment, I had to listen to that voice again when it was telling me to fire my first oncologist. She had decided that I wouldn’t need IV chemo, but when I asked her about the cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in my CT scan…turns out she hadn’t even looked at my scans. After firing her, my new oncologist looked at the scans (first thing he did), and said “You’re definitely going to need IV chemo after the tumor and those lymph nodes are removed, otherwise it might take hold somewhere else.” I figure its just like any other profession. There are a few doctors who are really great at their jobs, and a whole bunch of them that are either so-so or just plain don’t belong there. Like you said, listen to that voice, and keep your eyes open.
My wife is an RN at a hospital and also does the ER . If something isnt right your body will tell you. Listen to your body she always says. But I didnt have any symptoms . They found it in my blood tests when I moved and started seeing another doctor.He questioned me why hasnt anything been done and my reply was I didnt know anything was wrong. He checked my last testes for 3 years and said it showed up then . So I say a specialist and thats what started the whole show for me.So lesson learned on my part . Always ask questions and check the results of the tests…
I had a front door entry not too long ago. There was a big screen TV in the room, I guess as a distraction. So I had my cammera ready, figured you guys may want to have a look. Hurt like hell so I couldn’t take any pix. Maybe its for better. [:)]
Can’t trust doctors anymore, and that really scares me. I had a problem with my lower leg recently and my pcp looked at it and told me I need a knee replacement. That’s all she did, just looked at it. Diid no imaging, no x-rays, no MRI, nothing. Then she told me that most of her patients who had a knee replacement were never able to walk again!
Well, duh, sign me up for one of those right away!!!
After reading all of the stuff said so far in this string I felt compelled to add my story.
Around 13 years ago, I went through the process of donating a kidney. A week later I was rushed to the E.R. from complications from the donation which ended up causing a large blood clot to close off my bladder to the point of extreme pain and near rupturing. To clear the obstruction, they would normally bring the patient into surgery, but due to the urgency and having all the OR’s filled, they proceeded to try to purge it in a regular patient room, using two doctors and four staff (mostly females). It took four people to hold me down while two others performed the extraction. The procedure was to push 100 milliters of saline solution in through the cathader into an already near bursting bladder and then quickly and forcefully draw the fluid back out through the cathader hopefully removing the clot (basically flushing it out). After several attempts, much pain, and near passing out, it was pulled out. I was finally released after a doctor and female nurse used a camera on a tube going up through the front into my bladder to confirm the clotting was gone. By that time any dignity I thought I had was out the window. If i had to do it again, I would still donate my kidney, but perhaps I would check into other hospitals first to get the best facility and doctors available.
CONCLUSION: Always strive to get the best doctors and facilities. Do not use a facility that simultaneously trains new doctors in the process. Check out how many similar surgeries your doctor had performed before yours as well as thier patient feedback. When it’s your body and life, you can never be too thorough.
Six years later I was in the best shape I had been in over 25 years just to be told by my doctor through a routine blood test identified a problem. I get my blood screened to keep a check on my remaining kidney. My PSA in my blood all of a sudden went through the roof from one 6 month check to the next. He sent me to a specialist who after accessing my prostate to get samples confirmed I had prostate cancer and was already at an advanced stage (it was a very aggressive type). I really only had two options but I elected for the complete removal as it had the best odds of containing the cancer. The surgery was performed using a robotic machine and they also took all my reproductive organs along with my lymph nodes, prostate, and areas around the prostate too. The result, now six years later I am cancer free.
CONCLUSION: If it was not for my doctors thoroughness along with the 6 month blood screening, the cancer would’ve most likely never been caught until it was too late. Good and thorough doctors really do matter. Listen to what they have to say as it can save your life.
Hope I didn’t say too much here, but I’m telling you THIS STUFF MATTERS. Pride and vanity be damed…Get your prostate and colon screenings!
Then there’s the time when my now 93 yr old mom wanted to show us her colonoscopy pictures during an evening meal… now thats a totally other kind of story…
funny now, not then., WOW.
Castel Ihad that camera routine done also You are right hurts like crazy. They found an 11mm kidney stone. I told the Dr. that he WILL knock me out in order to remove it. 2 hours later I was on my way home. They put in a stint after removal and forgot to tell me untill it was time to remove it. That thing was 13 1/2 inches long. Again here they go againg to enter the front door to remove that . Needless to say I felt every inch when they removed that. Not something I recomend getting but it is something they need to do.
End of 2 stories practically the same. Ended up in the hospital on a friday night. Wife and family told I would not make it through the night. Monday morning, being checked by an intern. Gives my family a strange look and says “I think I better talk to the doctor. Something is wrong. We better run some more tests.” Result, I wasn’t dying and would not be dying for quite a long time with proper care.
The first time was a kidney infection. The second was a concussion from a close kicked soccer ball hit to the back of the head six weeks prior. They called it a subdural hematoma. Well, all that started WAY back in '72 and I’m still here. My 1st wife, her family and mine went through the 1st horor. My 2nd wife, her family and mine went through the second.
Well, the moral of the story is, and this is the honest to god truth, if a practicing physician tells you a hard to believe tale, don’t believe all he says eccept for the one part where he says he is a PRACTICING physician and get another opinion.
Jim [cptn]
Stay Safe.