A Rock and A Hard Place

Thank God it's my birthday!! I want 39 more of them!! (at least). I went to Dr. Hansen, Radiation Oncologist, today. I did not get exactly the news I had anticipated. He did his examination and said the tumor has definitely shrunk some even from last time (2 months ago) but that it's probably done shrinking (it will only usually shrink for 1-3 months after radiation). He said while he can do more radiation, he would recommend I go for surgery at this point. He also said he could completely shrink the tumor with radiation, but that would almost certainly cause anal incontinence and could cause impotence. These are exactly the symptoms we are afraid of with surgery. A rock and a hard place...

His opinion was that the surgery will put the non-recurrence rate at about 90% while doing a bit more radiation and then doing more chemotherapy would only give a 65% chance of non-recurrence. Also, if what is there is indeed cancerous, there is a 0% chance of non-recurrence.

He is going to put me in contact with another colorectal surgeon to get a 2nd opinion about the surgery. I'm also going to see Dr. Crocenzi (medical oncologist, Dani Arthur's boss) on June 9 to see what he says. I have a CT scan scheduled for June 2. This will show activity of cells. If we only see the one "hot spot" that's good, and would mean the cancer has most likely not spread, but if there are others, we would probably opt out of surgery, because generally that would mean the cancer has metastacized, and surgery won't control it.

There is more data to gather and more people to chime in on various topics.

Please pray we will have a clear cut answer (pun intended) by mid-June that we feel comfortable with.

ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER GOD GAVE US TO CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!