CatHair wrote:Everyone (almost), thanks for your contributions. It has been an exhausting, exhilarating week of research and comparisons, thoughts and feelings, rational reasoning and receptivity to signs. (My surgeon's resident says I've done more research than most medical students.) I have decided to go with the LAR, which, says the surgeon (whom we like more and more) to the greatest degree doctors will admit, should take care of the cancer & threat and I will not require chemo/radiation -- which is a big factor in its favor.
If I were childless or single, I would likely go with the more elegant TEM/TAMIS and chemo/rad and take my good chances on no further trouble. But I do have teenagers, a husband, and other family who would be bereft without me. My quality of life does include my life with my loved ones. I am willing to trade a piece of my ass for peace of mind, and this forum will be a good resource for post-surgery management tips going forward. So the wheels are in motion, I'm scheduled for 8/31, and the surgery coordinator doesn't disagree that if black coffee and Dr Pepper can be considered clear liquids so can Guinness Stout, so I can at least have some B vitamins to fortify me during the two-day prep Wish me luck and health. Thanks.
you are wise. If the LAR is over-aggressive, you stand to lose possibly a lifetime of comfort. But if the TEM is not aggressive enough, you stand a bigger chance to lose literally everything. wise choice, wish we made the same.