gmcbrazen wrote:Hello, I noticed blood on a stool about 5 months ago, but was not sure. Then I noticed it more often the last several weeks and saw a doctor. I had the colonoscopy thinking I had hemorrhoids. Turns out they found a 5 cm tumor. They told me it looked like cancer, I have not gotten the biopsy results yet, but did the blood work on Friday. The CT scans will done this Friday. reading the forum I feel better. I was clueless what this all meant. I guess the most important thing to find out now is what stage it is in, and that will be finding out if it spread to the lymph nodes. I am thinking I should find out with the CT scans. Is that correct? Is so does anybody know how long it normally takes to get the results? Or do they need to do the surgery to find out what stage your in. I think the blood work helps with the stage also. I asked the woman talking the blood what they are looking for. She told me they are looking for cancer cells in my blood. Will that be an indication on what stage I am in? It has been nerve racking because it happen over the Christmas holidays so after they found the mass, the doctor office closed the next day.
gmcbrazen wrote: . . . My sister thinks I should get another doctor because she believes my doctor is rushing things. She does not think most doctor just blurt out you have cancer before the testing results come in. She doesn't think they go right to surgery that they look at options, chemo to reduce the tumor first. But from what I am reading on this forum my doctor is in-line with this. It seams like most people were told by the doctor it was cancer before any test results come in.
My big question what is recovery from colony cancer like. Does being out of work really take months? I think I have some short term disability at work if needed. My savings will help for a few months before I need to go into retirement savings. But I can loose my job or I will loose my insurance. I need to work.
gmcbrazen wrote:Thank you NHMike, you provided a lot of information. I have not gone through staging yet. Tomorrow I hope to hear something after the CT scan. I am with a GI specialist at Greater Memorial Hospital in Houston. The GI specialist has a board Certified corectoal surgeon that she works with at Memorial hospital. I will get the name and check them out soon. My follow up appointment is Jan 3. I am waiting until tomorrow to get the scan results, Doc said she will call me to let me know.
So far my Doctor has not mentioned Chemo before hand. I have a list of questions to ask during my follow up and now adjuvant chemo will be on the list. It is good to know that I can work though chemo. I work in a satellite office by myself, which will reduce the chances of me getting sick. Plus I know I an work at home if needed. Thanks for letting me know not to get sick, I did not even think of that. Good luck in your battle and thanks for sharing it really helps to hear of other stories from people who are managing and surviving this.
We don't have short term disability at work only long term, which will not take effect until 90 days. I am sure I will not be out 90 days, so my combination of sick days and vacation days should cover 3 weeks. So that may just cover the surgery recovery. Thanks for giving me hope.
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