Check in from oldtimer - OT

Hi all, especially those I knew from back in the day. I hope you are all doing well. I "retired" a month ago, with the idea of going back to work part-time after relocating to a smaller house in an area we've always loved and have many friends. A week after the retirement, I had my routine, every 6 mo. CT scan (from colon cancer from almost 4 1/2 years ago; CRC was discovered when I had my colon removed and J Pouch formed) .. anyway, O joy, they discerned a soft mass between the intestinal surgery site and the right ovary.
Apparently my artificial hips (thank you, pred while in my 20s) cast a shadow on the pelvis in CT scans. In retrospect they could see that this mass had likely been there for "a while." The oncologist theorizes that some minute cancer cell evaded the chemo and took root. Path results will tell us for sure.
SO... I am having a hysterectomy day after tomorrow, with removal of this mass, with a GYN surgeon and also my colorectal surgeon there (to protect my J Pouch.)
Other than that, life has a lot of joy. I wish I'd done my J Pouch sooner, but I try not to beat myself up about it.
If you are celebrating holidays these days, I wish you good ones!

Songlady,

So sorry to hear this. It sounds like you have your medical team developed and ready to help you with this.

3X is right, you are a warrior. You have helped many people posting on this site. I know that you've "got this". If you need to vent--we are here.

You are in my prayers. Please let us know how it goes.

Clo

Truly sad to hear you're having to deal with cancer again. I hope surgery and recovery goes well. I admire your mental strength.
Please let us know how you're doing.

Huge hugs,
q

Will be thinking of you! So sorry to hear of another bump in the road for you! Hang in there and keep us updated!

Song sounds like all the selling house , moving will keep your mind and body busy. Easy does it with everything. Nice that job honored you. Always a great feeling when people recognize your hard work. Let us know how your doing. Prayers and hugs going your way🙏🙏🙏

Songlady you got this. This is just a small hiccup on the road to full retirement. From what you said it sounds like it’s in one area so that’s good news and having both surgeons there is a relief .
Number one thing is to get you better and all the moving stuff will fall into place … it always does .
Keep us posted and I am saying prayers 🙏for you tonight Songlady you are in my thoughts and I know all will be ok because like all of us on here we are fighters. Xoxo 🐣🥰

Thanks for all the encouraging words! OH, this is a TAH. The mass is between the ovary and the intestine. My CR surgeon will be there to take care of my J Pouch, as well as the GYN. (MY CR surgeon warned me that if a repair is necessary to the J Pouch, I'll have a temp ostomy for 6 weeks.)
I'll have a general anesthesia but also a block on each side of the belly, so I am not supposed to sense pain for 2 days, yay!
I'll pop in here hopefully by the end of the week. Thanks for being my cheering squad!

Like others that have commented I'm so sorry to read this, however, I do admire your strength & attitude. You have a very busy schedule ahead of you no doubt, time will fly by before you know it.

Sending you positive vibes & prayers.

Hi all - Well. First they did allll kinds of prepr; epidural placement, etc, for pain relief over the next few days... then (as planned) they took me in and started with a laparoscopic camera surveillance.

When I woke form the propofol, my belly hurt like heck and I was sure they'd done this huge incision. But it turns out that the way the cancer looked, all they did was some biopsies. Then they glued together the two tiny incisions.

When I woke up they gave me ginger ale and a muffin, removed the epidural and IVs, and home we went.

The doc told my husband that the cancer was like "grains of sand" - but we also know, from the PET, that it is confined to this one area. SO, I wait to hear about the next steps. Obviously this is not the easy resolution I was hoping for. But either my oncologist will come up with an idea here or maybe I'll go to some other place - there is a huge cancer institute not horribly far from where we're moving.

I ain't giving up! We'll figure this out.
I'll report back. Again, thanks for the positive wishes.

Good to hear the surgery went well and that it was contained to a small area.
When will you get the next plan of action...Im assuming it might be determined by what type of cancer it is?
Hugs,
q

Confined to one area is good news. Glad to hear you were in and out so soon. Sending well wishes and thoughts. 🙏

Hi everyone -
Between doctors' appointments and packing up our home of 23 years for a 250 mile move... at least I'm not bored!
Pathology results show that this is a recurrence of the original cancer.
So, the game plan is that I am doing chemo again; slightly different mix of meds. The goal is to shrink the cancer so that eventually it can be removed surgically (and, OH, I'll end up with hysterectomy after all - they'll remove "anything" that could be the next place prone to the cancer cells taking root.)
So, chemo every 2 weeks; infusion at the facility for a few hours, and then I take home a canister for continued infusion over 46 hours. So I am carrying around this thing that looks like a cross-body bag (or tummy pack) with the gizmo in it, and have tubing up into my port. Last time I went through this, Dear Husband (the best!) learned to detach it and flush the port, so we could cut down on the bother of trips to the Doc. He'll do that again.
My first chemo was yesterday; detachment from this canister is tomorrow. This first time we'll go in so DH can have a refresher course in medical technology.

They're hoping for 4 months of this, but after 2 months (ish) I'll have a scan to check the progress of the cancer shrinkage. (Note: I am thinking positive here! I am not saying "if" it shrinks but "how quickly" it shrinks.)

The good news is that although the "grains of sand" are spread somewhat, they are in the same area (abdominal wall) and not on other organs (liver, lungs, etc.) And because this is 4+ years out, apparently this cancer has not been as aggressive as they might have otherwise thought.

I've decided to come back and continue at my present facility for the first 2 sessions after our move, just to buy some time so I can better research the possibilities there and have time to meet the docs. My oncologist here is totally open to doing whatever: I can simply enlarge my team and he'll work with them, or I can have infusions there and scans/evals here; or as he said, I might come to think so highly of the new team that I'll completely transfer.

The canister is a drug they used last time: 5 FU. I told the staff, at least I know what the FU stands for! Take that, you cancer cells! (Gotta keep laughing!)

Wishing you the very best! Loved the FU to cancer cells! What a great and fitting name!