Husband diagnosed with Bowel Cancer

Hello....

so this is still very surreal, my husband (45) went in for colonoscopy last week and was told he had a 10mm bleeding tumour. Absolutely devastating news. He has had a ct scan and now we have this agonising wait till Tuesday for the results.

we are so consumed with the worst possible news, we can't sleep, eat concentrating on anything! 
I keep trying to read about the size of it, is it small? Did they get it in time? Has it spread? what grade it might be but google keeps scaring me :(

the nurse and surgeon at the time said it was not life threatening and they can deal with it.... can they say that and get our hopes up? Or are they just trying to keep us calm? I just keep hoping that they mean it.... but every scenario is running through our minds, it's exhausting :(

this is the hardest journey we have ever been on... 

xxx

 

  • Did they say it was cancerous or just that he had a tumour that needed to be removed. 

    You can have a tumour in your bowel or elsewhere but it's benign. They will test it obviously remove it and possibly he will need a stoma that can be resectioned further down the line. 

    They will check lymph nodes too, hopefully will be clear and fingers crossed it's not life threatening.

    Big hugs hang in there till you get the  results. 

  • I am sorry you are going through this. My partner has been through a similar journey. A tumour size of 10mm is considered small. It's perhaps due to its size that they made those comments. They will have seen growths that size and have a reasonable idea of its treatment.

    My partner's tumour was bigger and he had surgery without complications. X

  • Hello Lulubelle09,

                                 Its hard at this stage to keep a clear perspective, and all too easy to let the cart pull the horses at high speed to nowhere in particular.

    Focus on the positives,and the actuals not the negatives and unknowns

    Its good it has been found.

    Surgeon seemed positive, they are not renowned for giving false hope

    Its small in size

    You are on a treatment pathway and things are progressing quickly

    You no longer have the luxury of what if's, from here on it is the will be's and that is where you can make your own personal contribution to your treatment, this is the only contribution you can make since the medical team do the rest, underestimate this at your peril since stress and worry will heap pressure opon your husbands body at a time when it needs every advantage in order to allow it to respond well to the forthcoming treatment.

    l found that accepting the possibility of the worst case scenario very early on allowed me to concentrate on the reality of giving my body the very best chance of beating its invader,Earlier l wrote "what will be", sorry that should read "what can  be" and how your own actions can affect that.

    Nine years on from stage 4 with spread to liver and living life to the full suggests that being your body's best friend is better than your minds worst enemy,

    Make your own difference to your treatment journey,make it positive, make it work with you, most of all ,make it successful,

                                          David

     

  • Hi really sorry to hear how you both are feeling but unfortunately myself and my partner are going through the same feelings I have just been diagnosed with a 20mm tumour and finding it very hard to deal with especially thinking that I'm going to end up with a stoma big hugs for you both be strong x

  • Hi Lulubell!

     

    So sorry to hear that!  I get that your head is going to be all over the place. My husband is 68 and was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in July 2021 and had surgery in January this year to remove the tumour and we thought we were `done n dusted` and was getting our lives back to normal until May/June this year when he had a follow up appointment with his surgeon and she took blood tests and a couple of weeks later we got a letter to say that his CEA (tumour markers) had risen and a further CT scan confirmed the b*****rd was back. Our world just came crashing right down again and granted we can't fault his surgery team because his surgeon and her team did their damnest to get rid of it. He is a big chunky bloke (was he's lost a bit of weight through this) and she said he was `a challenge` but they got there. She was really upset in telling him it was back because he was progressing well with his recovery. Since then he has gone through 4 rounds of chemotherapy but at a recent oncology appointment the oncologist told him that the recent CT scan has shown a spread to his pelvis and lung and now we are back to pre July 2021 mode when we didn't know what was happening and yes like you lulu, I can't eat (or just do for the sake of it) I can't sleep and I just can function or focus on anything else other than this. He's lost a good bit of weight as well he was 133kgs at the start of his chemo cycle No4 and this time his weight had dropped to 127kg where his weight pre surgery was 145kg. He has been taken off chemo for now because the last cycle just about floored him and the oncologist thinks he is not fit to tolerate further cycles as yet as he also has fluid retention in his legs and his feet were swollen so he was sent home with water tablets to get rid of the fluid because the CT also showed that his kidney function had decreased slightly also and this is why there is a reluctance to start any other treatment for now so he is to take these tablets and be followed up in 2 weeks time. For a long time I have never been able to cry and anything sad or upsetting the last 2 days though I haven't been able to stop as we just got this devastating news about his spread on Thursday of this week. My heart goes out to you Lulubell. Please take care and keep connecting with this site. Take Care. Sorry for rambling!

     

    Vicky