Hi all,
My mum has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer today and I guess I’m just looking to discuss peoples experiences if they have experienced similar. Also if someone can help me understand some of the words/terminology that has been used.
BACKGROUND:
My mum is 59yrs old with T2 diabetes, hypertension and fibromyalgia.
SYMPTOMS:
Abdominal pain, changes in bowel habits, 7kg weight loss in a short amount of time, occasional blood in stool, nausea. She has had these symptoms for many many months, I don’t know exactly when her symptoms started but she has been complaining of many of these symptoms since the beginning of the year. She saw her GP and emergency departments about this multiple times and was diagnosed with UTI’s, kidney infections and piles (throughout the year). Nothing helped and her symptoms gradually got worse.
Finally, in September she went back to her GP who arranged bloods and a FIT test.
FIT test: >400 and inflammation and infection came back high from her bloods. That combined with her symptoms and weight loss led to her GP doing a 2WW referral on 19 September.
In the meantime she went to see her diabetic nurse for her normal review who asked about her referral and how it went. My mum told her she hadn’t received any appointment as of yet despite chasing it up multiple times. This was on the 28 October (over a month since the referral was made). The nurse not happy about this, escalated her concerns and my mum then had a phone call a couple of days later from the hospital saying she needs a colonoscopy. Which she has now had (2weeks after the nurse escalated it).
FINDINGS:
100mm tumour near the recto-sigmoid junction, 18cm from the anal verge.
No other tumours visible except this one.
They’ve taken 14 images and 10 biopsies.
Procedure comments say:
Unfortunately 18cm from the anal margin, almost at the recto-sigmoid junction, there is a large bulky, long and circumferential malignant looking tumor.
It is approximately 10 - 11 cm in length causing strictuing and luminal narrowing which was negotiated with very gentle resistance to complete procedure.
The preparation thereafter was very poor but regardless completed to caecum to ensure there is no synchronous malignant lesion identified.
Patient has very poor anal tone and unable to retain air / water - I could not safely perform rectal retroflexion in her case. No T.I intubation.
If possible, could someone dissect that information above and let me know what it means please? I don’t understand what circumferential, structural and luminal narrowing, poor anal tone, unable to retain air/water, rectal retroflexion and T.I intubation means.
Her diagnosis is colorectal cancer.
She is now waiting for an MRI of her pelvis, a CT scan and waiting for the histology results to determine if it has spread. They have fast tracked her histology. Does anyone know how long this could take please? She was also informed to take laxatives and modify her diet to ensure she has soft stools as the tumour is a blockage.
Finally, has anyone experienced anything similar? What treatment options were you offered, how long did you have to wait for those to start and how are you doing now?
Im sorry for this long post, I’ve spent the last 4 hours since leaving the hospital googling (I know it’s the worst thing to do) and I can’t help but worry. My dad passed away 3 years ago from heart attack at the age of 57 and the thought of losing another parent is something I can’t bear to think about.
Thank you for reading.
