scragots

Hi Irene,

Well, I guess I have to stand up and be counted…I, too, am overweight, have been since I high school. I can’t seem to lose it, specially now as I get older. But my doctor NEVER mentioned my weight as a factor in having this cancer. Of course, I already HAD the cancer, and I was going thru so much upheaval already, that maybe she didn’t see the significance in hammering me about it. I read that weight loss is a symptom with this cancer, but I never experienced this, even after surgery when I could barely keep any food down.

Sue

Kristin,

I am in Indianapolis and I went to Indiana University Med Center at IUPUI in Indianapolis. My oncologist is very familiar with this cancer and where others just shook their head, she immediately said she would take out the tumor.

Now, I am not saying she would say that to you, but she seems to be very competent and is a fantastic person and IU Med is an excellent teaching facility. I had my resection in 01/2007 and…so far, so good!

Your doctor needs to refer you to IU Med. I assume your primary care physician can do that if you do not want your current oncologist to do it.

Her name is Mary Maluccio.

Best of luck!
Sue

Irene,

I have to agree with Kris. Our stories are so similar it’s scary. I spent nine days in the hospital after surgery. It was tough, it hurt, I couldn’t sleep well (even as drugged up as I was!) and I had trouble keeping any food down. I was home for nine days, and became extremely dehydrated and had to go back into the hospital for four more days.

But here I am 18 months later (I TOLD you our stories were similar!) and I feel pretty good.

I sit at a desk all day, so I do still have some abdomen discomfort, and I seem to be fighting some bad reflux problems, but I would have to say I feel so much better than I did two years ago!

It has not been an easy battle. I, too, get tired easily, but not so much that I can’t do what I want to do. If I could charge $4.00 a gallon for all the gas I produce, I could retire!!!

But I NEVER considered not having the surgery. I spent 4 weeks being told I was going to die, and then met my doctor and her first words were “I can take it out!”. I never looked back.

Each person is different, but as for me, I made the only choice that I could.

I am grateful for every day and hope to live a long time.

Good luck to you! You will do what is right for YOU.

Sue

Morning Kris,

We went on our BIG cruise the last two weeks of April. It was fantastic. We met the nicest people, and saw some beautiful countries. Our favorite place was Honfleur, France. It is a small, dockside town that looks like it did in the 15-1600’s. (Well, other than cars etc, of course) We also went to Plymouth England where we saw the Pilgrim steps, which is where the Mayflower left from, and Cobh/Cork Ireland. That’s the place we were most excited about, but it turned out to be the least exciting part of the trip. We were out in the middle of nowhere and did not book a tour, so we really missed seeing Ireland at it’s finest. Overall, we ate too much, slept too little and met a wonderful family from Canada that we spent a lot of time with. It was a great vacation, but you know what they say…it’s always best when you come back home. Thanks for asking!

As for the “hernia”, I called my surgeon to make sure I was doing the right thing, and she actually has me coming in to see her, instead of a GI I have never met. I mean, she IS a GI too, DUH. I don’t know where my head was. Well, yes I do. I didn’t want to bother her in fear that it was all in my head, made up in my wild imagination. But, she said that’s what it sounds like, so I am hanging on to that thought. Is it weird to hope for a hernia? Specially when it could be so much worse…??? Of course, she was going on vacation, so I can’t see her until June 20, but she did give a script for good meds, so that has helped. I just wish I could see her and get it all over with. My brain needs an answer.

I am so glad you are doing so well. I am fine other than the chest/rib pain. Knees have finally gotten back to about 90%, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

We are heading out to Williamsburg/Virginia Beach area this weekend for a 4 day vacation. It’ll be nice to miss a couple days at work. We are swamped.

Take care of yourself,
Sue

Thank you all for your good thoughts and wishes. There is honestly just a little bit of relief to hear that I might only have a hernia. I would take that over CC anyday! Never having had one, I didn’t really know what the symptoms were. The pain I am having is similar to a constant gallbladder attack (which, of course, I CAN’T be having!) and I am glad to know there might be a nice simple solution!

Jean, you are so welcome!!! When I read your story, I started reliving the whole thing as it was fairly similar. You can read my looooong story anytime you feel like it, right here on this site. But I do remember (and still have) the days of worry and depression that come with an uncertain future. In fact, I had to chuckle, I was sooo depressed in the weeks after my surgery, that everyone was getting really tired of my crying, so they made the doctor get me a script for Loritab!!! I had never had it before, and I gotta say, it did wonders! I was only on it for a month, but it really helped me deal with everything.

Now, I did not tell you that as in “You need to get a prescription, girl!!!”, I just wanted to make you smile. You have a strength you didn’t even know about until the last few months, and it will pull you thru!

I will let everyone know what I learn from the GI doc…IN TWO WEEKS. It’ll seem like forever!

Hang in there…think those happy thoughts!!!
Sue

Jean,

This is EXACTLY what happened to me. My tumor was found incidentally during a gallbladder ultrasound! It took a few weeks to be diagnosed, but I was set up for resection within 3 weeks.

You can find my info on this website if you look at my posts, so I won’t go into the whole story here, but I wanted you to know that I am now 15 months post-resection and I feel great, no sign of any cancer. I am now going every 6 months for CT scans, the next being in September.

There is definitely hope. Your tumor was found early and it sounds very promising. It IS a very difficult time. But be strong. Only one more week. You will feel crappy for about 4 weeks, (not horrible, just crappy after a couple weeks) and then you should start to get some energy back. I was in the hospital for 9 days and then off work for about 10 weeks.Have been back for over a year now, and honestly, I feel better than I have for years. I have my bad days (mentally, not so much physically), but they are getting farther and farther between.

Some days i feel so guilty for being so lucky that the doctor’s found this early and were able to take it out, but people need to know that there is hope out there. And hopefully you can be that ray of sunshine for someone on this site.

I am so glad you found this site. These nice people are very helpful and really understand what you are feeling and going thru. Please keep us up to date on how you are doing.

Sue

Kris,

I agree with Barb (the cdr). It could easily be something you ate. I actually had a stool one time that was green! I couldn’t figure out why, and it worried me terribly, until I realized I had eaten some black licorice the day before! Yikes!!! I seem to have some fascination with my poop nowadays, rating the color every time I go. But I think it’s only natural when we are in this situation. Just keep an “eye” on it. It you are still worried, call your doc on Monday, that’s what tey are for… You will probably find that it gets back to normal within a couple days.

Take care,
Sue