New here - so thankful to have found this group

Hello gracenc, firstly a warm welcome to the group. I’m so sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. I haven’t had an excision but I’m sure someone who has will be along soon to help you. Meantime we are here to support you in any way we can. I hope you heal from the excision soon and great that your treatment is starting so promptly. There are lots of lists and recommendations of things that might help on here if you have a read back through and please don’t feel afraid to ask us all anything. Nothing can embarrass us, I promise! We have all been there.

best wishes

PPR x 

Hello Gracenc, I am so sorry you have had this diagnosis but am pleased that you have found the forum.  Everyone on here has gone through or has been through what you are experiencing right now and it makes such a difference to be able to talk to people who really know what happens.

I had biopsies under general anaesthetic but those weren't to remove the tumour, it was just to get a deeper biopsies as previous ones had been inconclusive.  I am assuming that once you have had the scans they will come up with a treatment plan for you.  This period of waiting can be so stressful but, once things start moving you can get yourself prepared.

Please let us know how you get on next week, we will all be thinking of you.

Irene xx    

Hi Grace, and welcome!

This group has been sanity saving for me! So useful to find others who have been through it and are able to offer suggestions and hope.

I don't know why an excision was done, but the under-anesthesia exam with biopsy was tough enough!

Hope you get some good answers from your medical and surgery team soon. The sooner you get started on treatment, the sooner you'll be on the far side and hopefully sailing on to recovery.

Glad you found us!

Suz

Hi gracenc I see you have been welcomed by some lovely members on here. I had a biopsy before my scans as they wanted to remove a abnormal area and wasn’t sure at the time if they could remove all with clear margins. As cancer cells were found in the margin ( think of an egg with the white part the margin and the yolk the suspect) I had the CT and PET and MRI scans. After surgery it was pretty sore and looked like I had a purple grape hanging out of my bottom. It was the swelling and unfortunately I burst my stitches. This took a couple of weeks to start to settle before the chemo radiotherapy started. The lump turned into a ugly tag and although it wasn’t on show to everyone it looked pretty unsightly. After treatment and the healing process I can confirm everything is back to normal and looking perfect if I can say that ha ha. So what ever it looks or feels like it will heal and almost certainly go away if it’s the same as me. Get a sitz bath if you haven’t already as these are great to sit on with some warm water. Some people used healing salts to help. This is also good for when you are going through treatment even when wanting to open your bowels as they can be pretty uncomfortable and the sitz bath is a godsend. Your medical nurses will be on hand to help you with pain control and we on here can say what helped us. Some creams suit some but not others and it’s just finding what suits you. We are with you all the way we can.

Hi, Jaycee - I live in the bathtub right now.  It's pretty normal for me to take about three baths a day at the moment.  That's the place where nothing hurts and I'm very fond of it.  :)  And, yes, I think you can absolutely say that your bum is looking perfect...in fact, shout it from the mountaintops!  

Thank you so much for your response!

Hi, Suz - I am counting down the days until Thursday for these scans and to meet all the doctors...I've got a list of questions a mile long!  :)  Thanks so much for responding!

Hi, Irene - I'm looking forward to a treatment plan and a plan of action.  I think it will help me mentally to have that because wondering about staging or if the cancer has spread isn't helpful for my head.  Counting down the days until Thursday.

Thank you so much for responding.  All of the responses from people mean so much!

Absolutely, I literally spent hours in the bath. It made me feel so much better. Very soothing and relaxing for all the sore bits. And actually I’m sure it helped my recovery! X

My husband used to fill up the Sitz plastic bidet (very cheap on Amazon) with lukewarm water for me.  I would soak my bottom in it and in the last stages of radiotherapy I would use it for a bowel movement - it hurt less under lukewarm water.  Yes really!  Cleans and disinfects easily.  There are LOTS more tips when you start treatment but I won't overwhelm you right now, just take a day at a time and know we are always here.

My "yuck" factor is permanently gone.  Pooping into a sitz bath to relieve pain now seems completely reasonable..my motto now is "whatever it takes" and I appreciate you bringing this up.  Sitz bath has been ordered!