Nohogirl wrote:Thank you all for your replies.
The surgeon didn't seem too care much about it. I asked him if this is possibly a reoccurrence, he said it could be or not. To my question if he can do a sigmoidoscopy he answered that it won't tell him anything. He said my husband looks good and he doesn't see any reason to be worried. His cold approach frustrates me. My husband looked good before his diagnoses and to me look is not the best prediction of the illness.
Whats killing me is that when i I read about local reoccurrence in rectal cancer, it says it has a very poor prognosis and is considered terminal
My husband didn't have any colostomy bag, when 24 cm of his rectum and colon was removed, his colon was reconnected together. So to make me feel a little relieved i am thinking this was probably to much trauma for his surgery site and will take more time to heal especially he also had radiation prior to it.
To address the middle part of your post - a local recurrence is not necessarily fatal. Small sample size, but I had two friends with local recurrences and they’re both Ned. One is from the 1990s. Distant presentation is more difficult.