Time for my check up - 3 questions

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Skoliv
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:33 pm

Hi you all,

I had a polyp with stage 0 adenocarcinoma when I was 29. Got it out and tried to start living again (had really bad anxiety at the time- my uncle died of colon cancer really young). My follow up colonoscopy 6 months later was clean, also tested negative for genetic abnormalities, so I decided to try for baby 2. He was born in June and is as beautiful as my first. I did not do my annual colonoscopy (should have been in May 16) because of pregnancy and now have to face this uncomfortable test once more. Sure enough,
anxiety is starting to build up again. Did not help that I had quite a lot of blood in my stool twice in the past 2 weeks, although I have internal hemorrhoids, this time it was not only on paper, but also in stool, just like it was the first time, when I had the 4 cm polyp.

Anyway, my questions are: (I know you are not doctors but experienced anyway!)

Anybody ever heard of a misdiagnosed stage 0? (Meaning they said it was it situ but it was not)

Will my colonoscopy be an issue if I am breastfeeding? Will it hurt my milk supply?

Could I have grown a new polyp in 14 months to the point that it bleeds?

I do realize that every year I will probably go through this anxiety and I should relax more, but that is just the was I am built.

Woo

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ANDRETEXAS
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Location: Austin, Texas (University of Tennessee alumnus)

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby ANDRETEXAS » Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:40 pm

2/10/14 - Colon resect
2/13 - DX- Stage IIIb
6 of 18 lymph nodes cancerous
3/7 - Port placed
3/11 - FOLFOX (12 rds w/full oxi)
8/14 - Chemo finish
8/25 - CT- Inc
9/5 - clean PET
12/10- clean CT

3/2/15 - Clean colonoscopy & port removed
3/4 - clean CT
9/21- clean CT

3/23/16 - clean CT

2/22/17- clean CT

3/21/18 - clean CT
4/1 - clean colonoscopy

3/11/19 - clean CT
9/23 - Five-year release - Annual visits now !

4/13/23 - clean colonoscopy

ONE DAY AT A TIME !

Skoliv
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:58 pm

Wow, really helped. Of course I would never do anything that could harm baby.. Thanks

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ANDRETEXAS
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Location: Austin, Texas (University of Tennessee alumnus)

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby ANDRETEXAS » Mon Jul 18, 2016 4:11 pm

You may have already, but make sure all the nurses and doctors know you are breastfeeding....
2/10/14 - Colon resect
2/13 - DX- Stage IIIb
6 of 18 lymph nodes cancerous
3/7 - Port placed
3/11 - FOLFOX (12 rds w/full oxi)
8/14 - Chemo finish
8/25 - CT- Inc
9/5 - clean PET
12/10- clean CT

3/2/15 - Clean colonoscopy & port removed
3/4 - clean CT
9/21- clean CT

3/23/16 - clean CT

2/22/17- clean CT

3/21/18 - clean CT
4/1 - clean colonoscopy

3/11/19 - clean CT
9/23 - Five-year release - Annual visits now !

4/13/23 - clean colonoscopy

ONE DAY AT A TIME !

Skoliv
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:46 pm

I will! I wish I could wait a while longer to do the colonoscopy but I am too scared. Had another episode of bright red blood coating stool today, and can't stop thinking about it. Hopefully it will not affect my breastfeeding which is really well established. It is really annoying to have internal hemorrhoids and history of cancer cause each time I get very anxious, how to tell the difference?

I still have to consult before I get a new colonoscopy, so I will probably keep on worrying until then..

Anybody have polyps or a new cancer this fast (14 months?)

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mypinkheaven
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Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby mypinkheaven » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:28 pm

Skoliv wrote:
Anybody have polyps or a new cancer this fast (14 months?)


I've had some polyps grow in a year, but they were very, very small and benign.

The biopsy of your 4cm polyp would have included careful inspection of the edge where it was cut - "clean margins" would make it a Stage 0. They're careful about that stuff - I ended up having a sigmoid resection because the pathologist couldn't see clean margins at the cut edge of a cancerous polyp.
MSS, KRAS Wild NRAS Mutated
9/2012 CRC IIB Lft Colectomy 0 lymph nodes 0 Chemo
10/2013 CT clear
11/15 CEA 2.7 to 4.6
11/15 Spread to uterus. Hysterectomy
2/16 Pelvic radiation 25, brachytherapy 3
4/16 - 6/16 Xeloda
6/16 CT Several lung nodules 5 mm
8/16 CT Nodules still present. Most stable. Some growth
11/16 Transfer to UCSD Moores
12/16 Folfox + Avastin failed
2/17 Folfiri + Erbitux
8/17 5FU+Erbitux No 5FU bolus
7/18 Spread to vagina
6/18 Folfiri + Avastin + Trametinib
6/18 CEA dropping

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Bev G
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Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Bev G » Tue Jul 19, 2016 11:47 pm

I'm not saying this to be scary, butt just to inform. I was diagnosed with stage IV CRC in 12/9. As I was being wheeled into the OR (literally) someone ran in to inform my surgeon that my biopsy from the colonoscopy had just come back and it was negative. In those days, I din't know sh*t from shinola and I protested the "rush" to surgery. Well, I already had a huge metastatic tumor in my liver, so there really was no doubt that the lesion found in my colon was malignant. Biopsies are only as reliable as the tissue that is sampled. If only the benign cells are retrieved, the biopsy will be useless.

Best wishes to you.
58 yo Type1 DM 48 years
12/09 Stage IV 2/22 nodes + liver met, colon resec
3 tx FOLFIRI, liver resec 4/10
9/10 6 mos off chemo, Neg PET&CTC CEA nl
2/11 finished total 10 rounds chemo

9/13 ^17th clean PET/CT NED for now

Skoliv
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:11 am

Hi Guys, appreciate the reply! Bev g, they took the whole polyp out, including stalk, and analyzed it all. Do you think I should have pushed for a ct scan or something? The oncologist told me not to because of all the masses I could find, that would surely be benign (since he was positive stage 0) but would just freak me out. It has been 19 months since polipectomy, should I push for one now?

I think maybe I hurt myself during labor, and that is why I have been bleeding. At least I really hope that is it.. (I do feel a stinging pain while going, as if I had a fissure or something). That is pretty common right? If I had a rectal polyp would it also hurt or are those usually painless? Are colon polyps the same as rectal polyps in nature? So if I had a sigmoid polyp I have just as much chance of having a rectal one in the future? I do feel it is rectal because of very fresh blood. Sorry about all these questions, I am trying to be thorough and think of all possibilities. I am only 30 and really want to see my babies grow old! Thanks for your feed back.

Buckeye
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Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Buckeye » Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:51 am

I don't know if this will help you are worry you more? I had Rectal cancer and it was a 1cm sessile polyp . I like you found blood on my stool , but this is important... It wasn't a lot of blood . It was a line or a streak of blood going down the side of my stool . I didn't have a lot of blood in the toilet. I had very little to none on the toilet paper, and it didn't happen every time I went to the bathroom. I watched it for about 6 months before I saw a doctor . So I would relax . It is most likely a fissure or your hemorrhoids acting up. Good luck and keep us posted. I am sure you will be fine.
Dx 10/20/15 stage 1 T1N0M0 1.3cmx1.1cmx1cm low grade ( well to moderately differentiated) Rectal cancer age 47
Loving Husband and father of two girls age 19 & 15 Sole income provider
CEA <0.5
CT, MRI and PET show no metastatic spread
LAR Laparoscopic TME 11/30/15 with Illo
Pathology clean no lymph node or vascular involvement. Confirmed Stage1
No chemo/rad cancer free now and forever.
Illo reversal 01/26/16

Skoliv
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Wed Jul 20, 2016 6:15 am

Buckeye, did you feel pain while going? I don't have that much blood, a few drops on paper and top part of stool coated with blood too. I guess symptoms are just too similar to know if it is a new polyp or a hemorrhoid/fissure. Hopefully if it is a new polyp it will not have had time to become cancer. After all I did check 14 months ago.. I'm praying for that anyway!

Buckeye
Posts: 109
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:02 pm

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Buckeye » Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:05 pm

Nope. No pain just a long narrow streak of blood that ran the length of my stool. I also noticed my stool seemed to look different. Kinda of had a curved out or squeezed look to it. Like as I was bearing down and my poo was being carved out by my cancer. Hope this eases you anxiety.
Dx 10/20/15 stage 1 T1N0M0 1.3cmx1.1cmx1cm low grade ( well to moderately differentiated) Rectal cancer age 47
Loving Husband and father of two girls age 19 & 15 Sole income provider
CEA <0.5
CT, MRI and PET show no metastatic spread
LAR Laparoscopic TME 11/30/15 with Illo
Pathology clean no lymph node or vascular involvement. Confirmed Stage1
No chemo/rad cancer free now and forever.
Illo reversal 01/26/16

Nik Colon

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Nik Colon » Wed Jul 20, 2016 11:46 pm

Jmo from what I know. Fresh blood (bright red) is most likely not from a tumor. Depending on size and/or location, you may not know it's there, most likely not. You just had a baby also, so could be hems, or something else. I had my 1 yr after surgery colonoscopy and just a small 3mm polyp. Can they grow faster, yes, but very rare. As mentioned, if margins were clear, that's good and shouldn't be of concern.
As far as the CT, what the doc said is odd. Usually they can tell the difference, also, a backup PET could help them to know. Yes, people have benign spots, but again what I just said. They would not just assume cancer. Yes, some spots are too small to know. Also, many people w/o cancer have benign spots from unknown or environmental issues.

Pyro
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Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Pyro » Thu Jul 21, 2016 12:53 am

I hate to say it, but bright red blood can be from a tumor, that's how I was diagnosed. it depends on where the tumor is at in the GI tract. Listen to your doctor, you may be just fine.
Aug 2015- Stage 4 CC with liver Mets(38/m)
Sep 2015- Avastin/Folfox/Iron
Dec 2015-Not liver surgery candidate
Jan 2016- Erbitux/Folfiri, 2nd opinion at MDA in TX
Feb 2016 -MDA liver surgery
Mar 2016 -30% of left lobe rem, PVE
May 2016 - 70% of liver rem
Jun 2016-Rad
Jan 2017-perm colost @MDA
Jul 2017-Erb/FOLFURI
Nov 2017 -Lung & Liver ablations@MDA
Jan 2018 -Xeloda & Avastin mx
Jul 2018-Avast/FOLFURI
Sep 2018-Rad
Mar 2019 - Keytruda fail
Jun 2019 - FOLFURI
Aug 2019 - No more, quality time!

Nik Colon

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Nik Colon » Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:30 am

Pyro wrote:I hate to say it, but bright red blood can be from a tumor, that's how I was diagnosed. it depends on where the tumor is at in the GI tract. Listen to your doctor, you may be just fine.

It can, but more unlikely from what I know. Again, not saying it's not

Skoliv
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:50 am

Re: Time for my check up - 3 questions

Postby Skoliv » Thu Jul 21, 2016 7:17 am

Nik Colon wrote:Jmo from what I know. Fresh blood (bright red) is most likely not from a tumor. Depending on size and/or location, you may not know it's there, most likely not. You just had a baby also, so could be hems, or something else. I had my 1 yr after surgery colonoscopy and just a small 3mm polyp. Can they grow faster, yes, but very rare. As mentioned, if margins were clear, that's good and shouldn't be of concern.
As far as the CT, what the doc said is odd. Usually they can tell the difference, also, a backup PET could help them to know. Yes, people have benign spots, but again what I just said. They would not just assume cancer. Yes, some spots are too small to know. Also, many people w/o cancer have benign spots from unknown or environmental issues.




Thanks for taking time to answer my post. I did just have a baby and did notice something that could be a small hem when I seat on toilet. I also think it's not a tumor, but I know it can be and when I think of that it freaks me out.

I am probably going to be like this for the rest of my life, just worrying that I might develop cancer again (also had thyroid C). I want to keep doing yearly scopes for ever to make sure they get anything in the beginning. Does this sound excessive?


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