Hello Tank60,

                    you have somehow managed to translate the good news that your treatment has shrunk your tumour into a worrisome negative. Whilst l can appreciate a desire for surgery to remove a grown/growing tumour, l would see the fact that the chemo/radio has obviously been right on target as an absolute positive, with the news that no surgery may not be required as the biggest present ever.

You state you would be anxious about regular tests, but l could only understand depression if the tests came back as positive, the opposite reaction would be elation if the results remained positive.

You seem eager to push for surgery that may not be needed as if whipping out a piece of your bowel would give you peace of mind and a clear run ahead. l have to tell you that in doing so may just create further life long issues that there may not be any answers to other than just suck it up and try to make the best of it.

As the recipient of a bowel resection which took 5 years for the bowel to come back close to normality, instead of the multiple toilet visits of up to forty a day, left with a very restricted passage due to surgery, Your consultant does not refer to it being the new normal without there being a good cause for doing so. l would have ripped your arm out of its socket to avoid interfering with something that just does not take kindly to being tampered with. Another blessing l have been left with is the recuuring bouts of the bowel completely blocking, the pain is unbelievable and if you want raised levels of anxiety then you will have come to the right place.in the days spent knowing will it free,will it burst, will it be an emergency operation with unknown consequences

This is not too say this is what awaits you on the other side of surgery, but the possibility of it being so is there. Your Consultant will know this is a very real consideration ,so why would he subject you to this if the need was not there?, at the end of the day he works for the best possible outcome for his patient, not garnering unnecessary hours on the operating table.;

Surgery may not be the panacea you currently believe it to be,my advice would be to hold an honest discussion with your specialist and bear in mind of the expertise they would bring to bear in deciding the future course of your treatment.

In the meantime congratulations on the good news that your strain of cancer is one that has responded well to non surgical invasion and may it continue to be the case in your future,

David

.