If you had a tumor big enough to be seen via a PET scan in your rectum it would have been seen on the colonoscopy. My guess is it is either OUTSIDE or in the vicinity of the rectum (pelvis) not inside the colon/rectum itself. Anything that is big enough to be seen via the PET scan AND is inside the rectal/colon walls is big enough to be seen with the actual scope. Someone needs to get specific with you and sit down and give you all the facts that make sense.
For me, I would want to know the following:
1. The mass that is 'rectal' in nature....where exactly is it? (It's honestly hard to tell from the pictures...I can't blow them up. Perhaps they didn't tell you???
2. What has made them classify you as a stage 3C and not a 4? I'd want to know that.
3. Were biopsies taken from the rectal mass?
4. Where exactly is this mass (seen via PET) in the 'middle'? How big is it measuring? How 'active' is it...based on PET.
5. Are there other areas (from PET/scope/actual operating visual field) that are suspicious?
6. Just an FYI.....you can't remove one's pancreas.....you need that organ to survive. However, it would be nice to hear an estimate of how many lymph nodes looked suspicious that the were left in in the vicinity of the pancreas.
7. Did anything else light up on the PET scan? Local or regional nodes? Masses, etc.?
8. Finally, Is the plan (chemo) to get you to a place where you can have the other masses potentially surgically removed?
I don't know if you took another adult with you to the oncologist's appointment but if you didn't, I would make sure that the next time you go, take another adult and my suggestion would be to leave the kids at home. You need another adult with you to take notes and/or ask questions that you both have jotted down before you get there. Too often, it is so overwhelming, particularly in the beginning, that you really do need another adult to help you wade through all of this....to be your ears and to hear everything that the doctor says. It's too easy, particularly if you are the only adult and/or if you are preoccupied with kids, to miss something. It's next to impossible to try and then remember accurately everything the doctor said.