The Colon Club

This is standard for rectal cancer. As you can see from my signature, after chemo/radiation my surgeon did a sigmoidoscopy and all that was left was scar tissue. A pet scan showed now sign of cancer before surgery. I had an endoscopic ultrasound for staging after the CT scan showed no spread of disease. The cancer is slow growing and as others have said the radiation/chemo does shrink the tumor, sometimes, totally. It sounds as though your mother is in good hands.

Thank you all so much for your responses. We trust she is in good hands. (And I feel like I am in good hands by having found all of you.)

Very interesting about the Watch & Wait approach. I told my mom we for sure should seek a second opinion at Mayo if we are lucky enough to have a complete response.

My grief and anxiety have just been going haywire today. I have been sick with worry about my mom since last week and also that the gastro recommended I myself have a colonoscopy now at age 34 due to previous episodes of rectal bleeding over the last decade. I obviously will get this scheduled but it just hit me like a ton of bricks today that I could have this too and be living a double nightmare. I can barely put on a happy face for my two little girls. I also noticed my bowel habits have been loose this past week—of course my mom says it’s the anxiety/stress/nerves we’ve been dealing with but I’ve basically convinced myself of the worst today.

I’m sorry for venting; I’m just a total mess.

This is a good place to vent. Hope you are feeling a bit better.

Very interesting about the Watch & Wait approach. I told my mom we for sure should seek a second opinion at Mayo if we are lucky enough to have a complete response.

I cannot emphasize how much you want this to happen. When surgeons are trying to find ways to not cut you up, you know the surgery is brutal!

Good luck and definitely get a second opinion at a place like Mayo!

They just called with MRI results—T3/N2.

But then they said they found a distant enlarged lymph node in the iliac region. She’s stage IV. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. God please help us.

Punky44 wrote:They just called with MRI results—T3/N2.

But then they said they found a distant enlarged lymph node in the iliac region. She’s stage IV. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. God please help us.

Double check with your doctors. I believe it is the internal iliac it can still be stage three. My wife's was just on the other side of the artery thus making it the external iliac. This along with the tumor growing into the uterus made her stage four. She had a great response to radiation and a good response to chemo. She has been cancer free since last fall.

Thank you tater (I replied to your PM before I saw your reply here.)

Yes they are saying “technically” she’s Stage 3 (or 3.5 according to some in the medical community) because of the internal iliac still being outside the mescorectal area that would typically be removed in surgery.

I am reading promising studies about neoadjuvant chemo (even for stage III) and have consulted with two major cancer centers who acknowledged this approach as well.

Where doctors seem to differ is whether or not they would remove this node in surgery and my goal is to get my mom somewhere that will.

Punky44 wrote:Thank you tater (I replied to your PM before I saw your reply here.)

Yes they are saying “technically” she’s Stage 3 (or 3.5 according to some in the medical community) because of the internal iliac still being outside the mescorectal area that would typically be removed in surgery.

I am reading promising studies about neoadjuvant chemo (even for stage III) and have consulted with two major cancer centers who acknowledged this approach as well.

Where doctors seem to differ is whether or not they would remove this node in surgery and my goal is to get my mom somewhere that will.

There are some trials on rectal cancer stage 3's to not do the radiation and treat it with chemo prior to surgery. It depends on how the tumor responds. We tried to get on that trial but once the biopsy on my wife's external iliac came back positive for RC that sealed our fate and we did not qualify for the trial.
They should be able to remove those nodes. It was questionable if they could remove my wife's as it was next to the artery that feeds her leg and post radiation they said that the node becomes sticky and it is more difficult to remove but they did it successfully.

Just to add about the nodes. It depends on what the nodes drain. I believe the internal iliac drain the rectum and the lower pelvis. Those usually come out with the rectum if that needs to be removed. The external iliac drain the leg. My wife is young and in shape and walks about an hour a day and she does have to wear a compression sock as she has minor lymphodema in the leg. Her leg is about 1 cm to 1.5 cm larger than the other so it is a real concern, but it is better than the alternative.