Postby worriedwife6 » Fri Sep 22, 2017 12:07 pm
Hi all, this is a place I did not think I would find myself. Looking for some input on our situation. My husband is 48 and in good health. Went for his yearly physical and had microscopic blood in urine. He has had some kidney stones, so doctor sent him for a CT scan at the end of July. Scan showed a small kidney stone, no big deal, but also showed a rectal mass. So after the shock wore off, we got in with a colorectal surgeon that is at a nationally ranked hospital. He looked at scans and also did a rectal exam and said that the mass, which was fairly large, did not present as a cancerous mass visually but we should have a colonoscopy. So had that and it showed three polyps, one being the mass that was seen on CT. He biopsied the large one and left in in there and removed the two smaller ones. He said again that it was soft and looked benign, but biopsy is where the truth lies. He biopsied multiple spots and also did an US while he was in there. Ultrasound showed nothing through rectal wall. Biopsy came back as benign so we scheduled to have it removed last Wednesday. He called Monday morning and after the mass being cut up into over 100 pieces, three slides came back positive for cancer. It is currently staged at a T1. Problem is, he needs to recover from the removal last Wednesday, at least four weeks. Surgeon said the cancer is out of him, he went pretty deep into the wall to scrape it out, but that is not the procedure for when it is cancer so he needs to go back in and remove that part of the rectum and take lymph nodes. July CT scan shows nodes are all normal size and liver was clean. The scan also showed 70% of the lungs, since it was just an abdominal and pelvic scan that started this, so he does want the full chest CT done. That happens early next week. He has a flex sig scope on Oct 19th to see if he is healed enough for surgery. He will remove that part of the bowel and reattach and we have chosen to do the temp bag to give him time to heal and give us a better chance that he can avoid a permanent bag. 12 weeks later it will be reversed. He said if no nodes and organs are involved that he will be stage 1 and surgery is all he needs. From your experience does this sound like the right plan? If ultrasound showed it hasn't gone through the wall, then does that lessen the potential for spread? He has told us that we are more than happy to get a second opinion, but we know he is the best colorectal surgeon at that hospital and the hospital is highly ranked for this. We are feeling like we are in good hands. He told us that we need to feel like we won the lottery because with no family history of anything like this, a kidney stone could end up saving his life. I know that to be true, but I am just struggling with this right now. Thanks for any advice or thoughts you can share!