See Part One here.
I called the gastroenterologist’s office and made my appointment for 3:30 the next day. They assured me that the results would be in by then. The next day, Thursday, was very snowy and the doctor’s office had a lot of cancellations. They called me to see if I could come in at 11:00. I asked whether or not they would have my test results. They assured me they did (I’m surprised at how quickly some test results come back and others seem to take forever!). I called hubby to make sure he could go with me. I picked him up at work and we drove around to the doctor’s office. I remember being taken into her office and waiting for her, wondering what she was going to say although I was pretty sure I knew. When she came in, she started off by saying that she had my results and then she said I had cancer. I remember thinking that it was almost like she didn’t mean to say it so soon – like it came out before she intended. I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t want it to be true. I had three little kids and I wanted to see them grow up! She asked if we had any questions. My only one was, “Now what?”
Dr. MB was all business (which at that moment was what I needed – someone to tell me what to do) and quickly got me scheduled for a CT Scan on Friday (it took all of 10 minutes to have done) and got me an appointment with a surgeon on Monday, February 1.
The surgeon, Dr. AB, was very nice. When he walked in, he looked at me and said “You’re 35 and have colon cancer?!” He was totally surprised (or at least he appeared to be) much like us. He recommended surgery (the sooner the better) to remove the cancerous part of my colon and then reconnect the remaining halves (colon resection). It was scheduled for Feb 16. Although it was only two weeks away, it seemed like forever. Especially since I knew there was a cancerous tumor growing in me. I could just imagine it getting bigger and bigger everyday. I’m sure it didn’t grow that fast, but I just wanted the surgery date to be here! I’ve never been so eager to be in the hospital. After the surgery they would biopsy the piece they took out and look for any signs of the cancer moving to other areas (nodes). The results of the biopsy would determine if I would need chemo and/or radiation. He also wanted to take out my ovaries (and my uterus since it doesn’t behave without the ovaries) as a preventative measure so he called my gyno, Dr. S. He called me to talk about it and to have me come into the office to sign paperwork. I also had a mammogram as another preventative measure (that was normal…whew!).
The day before the surgery was the worst! I had to do the prep again! This time however, I had the “good stuff” – a free sample from the doctor’s office (I’m so glad they took pity on me!). It involved two little pills and drinking maybe 16 ounces of liquid. Totally doable! The clear liquid diet is never fun and spending a good portion of the evening/night in the bathroom isn’t fun either. Because my OB/GYN had regular office hours on the 16th, they requested first surgery. That meant I had to be at the hospital bright & early. Fine by me – I wanted it over with!
I don’t remember what time I had to be at the hospital, but it was early – before my daughter had to be up to get ready for kindergarten (my parents and mother-in-law were staying with us for several weeks to help out). After getting checked in and IVs in place, the nurse gave me the most wonderful invention – a warm blanket! Seriously, I was absolutely freezing!! Then, they came in with another even more wonderful invention -a machine and blanket contraption. They hooked up the machine to the blanket contraption and it blew warm air into the layers of the blanket. Ahhh….so wonderful! At some point before I went into surgery, I found out that my daughter didn’t want to go to school. We had figured that this would be a possibility and the school knew what was going on, so it wasn’t a big deal to us.
Finally it was time. I don’t recall being overly nervous, just eager to have it done with. I knew I had the easy part for now – I would be out and have no idea how much time was passing.
Come back tomorrow for the final part of my colon cancer story.
Leave a Reply