Diagnosis - Part 2

I haven't blogged the last couple of days mainly because I didn't have much to report and no spare time. I felt ok, not great, not too bad.... just tired really. Always tired. I just don't have enough time to get it all done.

Today was another busy day, with stuff to report though. I got up at 5:00 AM and went to the gym. That was good, although I could have used another 30 minutes at least. As I've said, I feel better on days I work out. It's not just the general "feel better" feeling that you get from working out. It's also that my colitis seems better on days I work out. Maybe it's the stress relief, maybe it's my imagination, maybe it's something else entirely. I wish I had a schedule that let me work out every day without losing sleep or what little leisure time I have. Maybe I need to get a job as a personal trainer.

Anyway, in the afternoon today I had my doctor's appointment with the surgeon. My ex went with me (thanks!) and we got a chance to ask questions. Lots of people have been telling me I should be taking alternative medicine cures of one form or another. While those may work in some cases with varying levels of success, my doctor explained that if I want to do any of those things, I can, but that doesn't stop the fact that my colon needs to come out, now. He said my best chance for survival is if they remove the part that currently has cancer. Doing any less is running the extremely high risk that it'll spread (not if, but when), to an organ that will kill me. The liver is almost begging for it, but it's certainly not the only candidate.

Actually, what he said was a lot more complicated than that... what he said was he won't know the extent of what needs to be done until he's in there. He examined me for the potential to do what is called a J-pouch, and from what he knows right now, that is an option for me. But once I'm under the blade, he'll find out exactly what needs to be done. If the cancer is too far spread, they won't remove my entire colon because my life span will not likely be long enough where colon cancer would be much of a risk. In that case they'd just take part of the colon and re-attach the plumbing and good luck. That's less likely, but a possibility.

If the cancer hasn't spread beyond the colon, they need to take out the entire colon because part of the colon has cancer, and parts of the rest are turning cancerous in the very least. So in that case my choices are an ileostomy or a J-pouch, each with its own list of pros and cons. A J-pouch has some possibility of cancer and "pouch-itis", and has the added joy of 6 or 7 trips to the bathroom each day for most people and as much as double that or more for some. An ileostomy doesn't have any possibility of cancer or the trips to the bathroom, but you have a bag on the outside of your body. As with any major surgery, other complications are a possibility. Geez, can I have door 3 please?

As an aside, there's a commercial playing on TV quite a bit these days about "Living with Ulcerative Colitis"... it almost makes me laugh. The guy on the commercial says "I'm going 6 times a day". Damn dude, you don't know what rough is. Six times? Hell, that's a pretty good day for me.

If the cancer has spread to any lymph nodes, chemotherapy will likely be needed. We all have heard how much fun that can be.

So, he said things like alternative medicines are fine for helping in the healing, but they won't heal the cancer that is in there now. He explained how cancer cells start out like normal cells and through a series of gene mutations (7 or 8 in total) they progress through different stages of cancer. He said my best chance of survival is to first remove the cancer, then do what I can to help heal. Don't remove the colon, the cancer in there will spread and kill me. Remove only the part that has cancer now, and the rest will turn cancerous soon enough. Remove all of it, and I won't have any chance of colon cancer anymore. Or something like that. I wouldn't quote me on the specifics, I'm just repeating as best I remember it.

Anyway, he said I could do it when I was ready, but the longer I wait, the more chance that it'll have spread and my outcome will be worse. As early as next Tuesday, or as late as right after Xmas. My down time is going to be 8 weeks. EIGHT WEEKS. Damn, that sucks. I'll likely be able to collect some medical disability during some of that time, but as anybody that has ever had to go on temporary disability knows, they don't pay you what you would have made at work, they pay you a percentage of your pay. If you're basically living paycheck to paycheck, good luck paying your bills. What really sucks is I've worked SO hard to clean up my credit over the last few years and this is not likely going to help that any. So if you feel like making a donation to the "Jim's being disemboweled" fund, now would be an excellent time. :-)

-jk