This evening is the day before, the day before. On Thursday, Jan 15, 2015 I will have my third bowel resection since 2007. In fact it is just a few days past eight years since my first surgery.
I cannot tell you how I hope this is my last. The first surgery was supposed to be uncomplicated, a simple resection and a cure. The Oncologist told me that from the pathology report I was cured, it was as though I'd never had a polyp before.
Initially I encountered frequent bowl movements and I characterized it as going a little a lot. Ten to fifteen times or more a day was not uncommon. There were some days where I didn't go all day, but other days I had accidents and had to clean out my underwear, other days I just had the urge often.
Two years later I started to run into pain, bleeding, and accidents that came without warning. The third year I had a colonoscopy at VA, 2010, and the Dr. said the anastomosis was clear. It wasn't because in April of 2011 after months of treatment for IBS the doctor finally wanted to run another colonoscopy to see what was going on, what was going on was a tumor at the anastomosis that had nearly encircled the bowel. The dumbass at VA missed it.
So in May and June of 2011 I began a regime of concurrent radiation and chemo. It was tough, it was very tough. At the end of June I ended up lying on a bed in a trailer screaming in pain, getting up every fifteen minutes and have diarhhea and then lying back down to get a few minutes rest. After about two weeks the inflammation healed and began to feel good. Then in August 2011 the second resection to remove the burned tumor. All was good.
Around April or May of 2014 my CEA started to rise, and rose until in August it hit 6.2, 3.2 points over normal. A PET scan revealed a hot spot in my pelvic area. A MRI with Contrast reveals a small malignant mass about in the same area as the previous two surgerys.
So I had to indure three months of chemo again which made me feel sick, tired, and fatigued. I ended up spending two months just sitting and enduring.
Thursday I go to a specialist in Little Rock to have the malignancy removed, hopefully. The scans show it very small and not attached to anything like a bone. It outlook is good. My normal surgeon declined to do the surgery because of the risk of a bleed. The surgeon doing the surgery is a specialist in colorectal cancer surgery and well reputed. Hopefully I will survive the surgery and perhaps this time we may get it all. I pray so.
