Ok, everybody,  it’s time for the news!  I just returned from San Diego, where I had to go through a colonoscopy again.  The reason behind this was my behind (sorry, I had to say that).  Actually, I had gone to see my oncologist two weeks ago, and while most of the news was excellent, there were a few things that had to be taken care of, one of those things being some rectal bleeding, and another was exploring surgical options down in San Diego.

Once I spoke with my doctor in San Diego, he reccomended the colonoscopy to rule out a possible bleeding tumor (not that big a deal once they knew it was, but still had to be taken care of).  He also said that my continuing elevated CEA counts could be a result of the tumors in my colon and that once removed, my CEA counts could drop to normal levels.  I repeat the word could, because it’s not for sure if that’s the cause, and I won’t know what my count is until my next blood test, which could be on Monday or Tuesday at the earliest.

So, we scheduled the colonoscopy for today, since it was the earliest I could get in.  We stayed overnight, since it included four hours of preparation in which I had to drink a gallon of liquid that once the flavor packet was dropped in, tasted like pineapple flavored salt water.  (YUMMY!)  The result of this drink is to what the directions coyly refer to as cleansing out the bowel.  What it really means is you crap your brains out the rest of the night.  I seriously think I lost twenty IQ points last night.  Maybe thirty.  According to Sarah, it’s not something she would recommend doing in a small hotel room with only one bathroom.  One. Single. Bathroom.  According to both mom and Sarah, my getting up to go to the bathroom constantly kept them awake all night, and once I did fall asleep, my snoring kept them awake the rest of the night.  I, however, slept like a baby. (Right about this time, Sarah’s giving me the look of death).

Once in the surgical prep room (for some reason, sticking a camera up your hind end is considered surgery), we were told that the procedure would only last about twenty minutes.  An hour and a half after it started, I woke up on the table with a camera exploring places never intended for the human eye to see.  It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.  It downright HURT.

After the procedure was over, they brought Sarah and my mom back into the room and sat them down to await the results. The doctor who performed the colonsocopy (who would specialize in that all day anyway?) came in to explain the results. 

Now to the moment I’ve been building towards.  My first colonoscopy found multiple tumors and hundreds and hundreds of polyps.  Some of the latter were cancerous, and all of the tumors were.  This latest scope found only six polyps and one tumor, which were all removed during the procedure and retrieved for biopsy.  Needless to say, for once, I was speechless.  So was Sarah.  Mom kept repeating the doc’s words to make sure we both understood her.

So to recap, the last PET scan showed no active tumors anywhere, and the colonoscopy showed all the cancer except for one tumor was gone, and that one was removed by a two centimeter camera during the colonoscopy.  By the time we heard this, we were all crying and ecstatic at the same time, which is an unusual feeling.  At least for me it is.  I can’t speak for the others.

We expected the tumors to be smaller, especially since they didn’t register on the PET, but no one expected them to be GONE.  Now all that remain to do is something called a bi-phasic MRI, which I don’t exactly understand, but I was told it’s liver specific and shows much greater detail of the liver.  Depending on what that test shows, we may not have to do anything to the liver, but we still have to check it out.  Then, depending on the results of that, I may be off chemo for a while, in which I believe the plan is to do a colectomy, in which the colon is removed.  What the colonoscopy tells us is that I may be a candidate for something called an illeostomy, in which the colon is removed and the small intestine is attached directly to the rectum.  That would mean NO BAG (YAAAAAY!).

I don’t know what the treatment plan is from here, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

So we all ended up celebrating by going out to dinner tonight with some of the family and friends.  I told them there, and I’ll repeat it here.  I want to thank EVERYONE for their support during these last two years.  Your concern and your support over this time has really made the difference.  It’s kept me strong and helped me through the roughest of times.  Even though I’m not completely out of the woods yet,  I do think the forest is thinning out, and it couldn’t have happened without all of you. 

I started this website and this blog mainly to help myself while furthering others understanding of colon cancer and it’s effect on patients who have it.  I plan on continuing this blog even if I’m declared cancer free and don’t ever have another round of chemotherapy again, mainly because I want to continue educating everyone and raising awareness.

One more thing.  If you go back to my very first post, I said cancer didn’t have a chance.  I should now tell you that I don’t lie, and now I can prove it!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 am and is filed under My Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.