What a pain in the butt...literally.
Kathy was having some pain and rectal bleeding. She had a colonoscopy on Thursday the 18th. After the procedure her Dr. explained that during the procedure she found a tumor on her rectum. The tumor was biopsied and sent as a rush to the lab. On Monday the 22nd, Kathy received a call from the office saying that the results were in and the Dr. wanted to see her the following morning.
Kathy and I went to her appointment on Tuesday with Dr. Nyugen (pronounced Wynn) and were told that the biopsy was malignant. In order to determine treatment and surgery 3 things needed to happen.
1- CT Scan from her neck to her pelvis (This would show any other tumors or “hot spots”)
2- Blood Work (This is for a CEA tumor marker test)
3- Endoscopic Ultrasound (This will determine the depth of the cancer and the stage)
Since Kathy had not eaten breakfast they were able to schedule the CT scan and blood work on the same day. The bad part was she couldn’t eat or drink anything until after the test, which wasn’t even scheduled until 2:30. Both of these tests could be done in McMinnville. The third test had to be done in Tualatin. I called the Tualatin clinic and she was able to get in for a consultation on Wednesday.
There was good and bad news at the appointment. I will start with the bad. After checking in, filling out all the paper work and meeting with the Dr. we found out that her insurance would not cover the hospital where the procedure needed to be performed. The GOOD news about this appointment is that the Dr. was awesome. He had requested all of her records and had the results from the CT scan and blood work. The CT scan did not show any other tumors or activity. The only thing it did show was a few lymph nodes around the rectum that were inflamed. He explained that just because they show up doesn’t mean they are cancerous, and even if they are no other lymph nodes in her body showed as being active. The CT scan also showed that the cancer was 14 mm thick into the rectum wall. He said that this just tells the physician where to look when he is performing the endoscopy. The CEA tumor marker came back at a 3.2, which he said is excellent. If you do not have cancer they expect it to be under 3.
So for now we are just waiting to have the endoscopic ultrasound done. This will be done in Portland through the Oregon Clinic. I will update more as soon as we know! Thanks for all of your love and support.
Kami
