Colon Cancer

A lot has happened the last 2 weeks. We've gone from normal to I'm having surgery to remove part of my colon. I guess I'll start at the beginning so you can see how we got where we are today.



Tuesday   March 25
I had a horrible sore throat and couldn't figure out why. I thought it might be a cold or sinus infection, but my nose wasn't stuffed. My ears hurt, my throat was on fire, and I ached all over. I took ibuprofen to help with the pain and dealt with it.

Wednesday   March 26
Gave up and went to InstaCare to get a strep test. I was surprised that the test was positive, I haven't had strep since I had my tonsils removed 16 years ago. At the end of the appointment the doctor asked if I had any other questions and I asked if having black stool was a bad thing. I had had black stool for about a week and didn't know why. I now know that getting strep was a blessing because I never would have asked about my stool if I hadn't been there. I would have just ignored it and thought it was something I ate.
The doctor said that black stool was a bad thing, it could mean blood in the stool. She said I needed to have it tested.


Friday March 28
I took in a sample to get it tested. The lab at InstaCare wasn't very helpful. The doctor I had seen for my strep said that it was a quick test that would have results in minutes. The people at the lab said they didn't do anything on site and everything went out to a lab to be tested. Someone came by every few hours to pick up the things needing to be tested and they would be by in 2 hours. They said I should get a call that evening.
I never heard from them.


Sunday March 30
I finally called and asked for the results since it was obvious they weren't going to call me.
The results were positive, there was blood in my stool.
Next step was to set up an appointment with my doctor.


Monday March 31
Called my doctor, Dr. Eberhard, and set up an appointment.


Tuesday April 1
Went in to see Dr. Eberhard. After some discussion he said I needed to get scoped in both ends. I was bleeding in my stomach or in my intestines and we needed to figure out why.

Now here comes more chaos:
Jon was offered a job at the University of Utah. He'll be doing pretty much what he was doing at Johnson Controls. His last day was supposed to be April 11 and then he'd start his new job April 16. We were even planning on taking a short trip between that time. Since our insurance would be changing I asked the doctor if we could rush things because I didn't know if the new insurance covered pre-existing. The doctor had his nurse call and get me an appointment for a colonoscopy the next day.


I never want to have another colonoscopy. The procedure isn't bad, but the stuff you have to drink to clear yourself out is horrible! You have to drink 4 cups the night before and 4 cups four hours before the procedure. It's nasty and tastes like salt water. I was able to get down most of it Tuesday night. I got a few hours of sleep before I woke up because it was working, and then was up every hour for the rest of the night.


Wednesday April 2
I had to wake up early to start drinking it again. I had from 5:30 – 7:30 to drink the last 4 cups, and then I wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything after 7:30. I hadn't been able to eat anything because I was on a liquid diet to prepare for the colonoscopy. I could have clear liquids, broth, and yellow or green jello. Because I hadn't been able to eat anything I was nauseous. By 7:00 I had only gotten a few sips down and I didn't know what to do. I started looking online to see if anyone had any tips on getting the nasty stuff down. I ended up putting ice in it, mixing some Crystal Light white grape in it, and sipping it through a straw. I was able to get 2 cups down by 7:30. I was supposed to stop drinking then, but I figured if I could get the rest down by 7:45 I would be okay. I ended up throwing it all up at 7:40 so there was nothing I could do. They would probably tell me to go home and set up another appointment, which would mean drinking the nasty stuff all over again.


I got lucky in the fact that they didn't make me reschedule, but my luck ended there.
The scope of my throat and stomach showed everything was normal. The colonoscopy found a mass the size of a ping pong ball in the top right corner of my large intestine. Dr. Schmidt said he was pretty sure it was colon cancer. We asked if there was any chance that it was my endometriosis. The doctor said there was a slight chance, but he was pretty sure it was cancer. He said that whatever it was, it needed to come out asap. He connected me with Dr. Jill Waldron who was a colon and rectal surgeon.
Dr. Schmidt had taken a biopsy of the mass and said we should have results Friday afternoon or Monday at the latest.


Friday April 4
We met with Dr. Waldron in the morning. Her nurse kept calling trying to get my results, but never could. The computer systems had been updated in every office we had been to in the last few weeks, which meant they were running behind because there had been problems with the update. The nurse was told that the results had not been transcribed so she couldn't have them. We thought that was ridiculous. We didn't need them to fax or email the results right this moment, all we needed was a yes or no. The results of whether or not it was colon cancer was holding up everything.
If it was cancer, then I need to get CT scans to see if it has spread to my liver and lungs. If it has spread then we'll do chemotherapy for a bit before surgery. If it hasn't spread then we'll go straight to surgery. We need the results so we can set up the CT scans.


Right now the plan is:
Monday – get the results that it is cancer
Tuesday – get some more blood tests and the CT scan
Thursday – Surgery

We're pretty sure it's cancer because Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Waldron both say it is. We asked why they were so sure it was cancer and not endometriosis or something else. Dr. Waldron says it's like reading a book by it's cover. They've seen enough over the years that they know what the cancerous masses look like. So it looks like I have colon cancer.


Right now we're trying to decide whether to do the surgery next week or wait until after Easter. Dr. Waldron will be out of town for Easter so we'd be working around her schedule. The other thing to consider is Jon switching jobs. Let's say I have surgery next week, I will have to stay at the hospital for 4-7 days, and then let's throw in the chance that something goes wrong and they have to do surgery again to fix something. We'll hit the deductible with one insurance and then we'll be switching to the other. We don't want to have to hit the deductible twice, or have to pay for everything with the new insurance. So it would be a good idea to just wait until Jon starts his new job. (We're still trying to figure out all the details with the insurance, but we should have all our questions answered by Monday).
Dr. Waldron said we're okay to wait a little bit to do the surgery, like a few weeks, not a few months. Even if the results come back as negative, the mass will eventually turn into cancer so it has to come out. Also, if the biopsy comes back as negative, there's still a 20% chance that it is cancer because the sample for the biopsy is taken from the surface of the mass, it could be cancer at the center of the mass.




So that's where we are now. We're doing okay, just trying to stay positive and not think about it to much. I'm in high spirits. I'm doing what I've done in the past when life gets tough. There's nothing you can do about it, worrying or stressing about it won't do any good. So just laugh and smile and keep going. I know I should be panicking and crying, but I'm not. I get teary eyed every once in a while, and I get nervous sometimes, but it passes. I don't know if it's Heavenly Father comforting me to let me know that everything will be okay, but I'm not worried. I know Heavenly Father is watching over me. I haven't had strep throat in 16 years, if I hadn't gotten sick I never would have asked about my black stool and never would have found out that I had a mass in my colon. So getting sick was a blessing.
I've seen miracles in my family and friends lives during my life. I know prayer is a powerful thing. As soon as we have a surgery day set, I'd like to ask my family and friends to join me in Fasting the day before surgery and praying that they get all the cancer, that the surgery and recovery will go well and with no complications.



Thank you for all your love and support. I'm gotten so many messages through texting and on Facebook and it means so much to me. 
 
We will keep you updated as we find out more and get things set up.