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| First time trying to start a thread. Been a lurker for years.
Always read good advice and enjoy reading about others operations.
To the reason for this post:
Earlier I was reading Olivetroad's post about his family trip to Branson and it got me to thinking. Dangerous, I know.
I don't know David personally, but we probably live about 20 miles apart.
Anyway, he and his family were enjoying a nice vacation while my family was waiting for the verdict from the operating room at Boone Hospital (Columbia,MO).
You see, I ignored my doctors advice to get a colonoscopy for 20 years until a routine blood draw revealed that I was severely anemic. I was sent immediately to a blood cancer doctor who said if I was anemic it was because I was "leaking" somewhere inside. An endoscopy and a colonoscopy were ordered immediately. No more refusing because "everybody" said the prep for the colonoscopy was nasty. When they couldn't get the camera half as far up as they wanted, the next stop was the surgeon. After a 3 hour surgery that took over 6 hours, I now have an 8 inch incision up from my belly button and 4 smaller ones around it that she used for access and to install a drain. I have pictures but I'm not going to post them. they're pretty graphic.
Turns out the tumor was the size of a softball that she said she had to "chisel" (her words) off the wall of my stomach. She took out 12" of my upper colon in an attempt to get "clear margins".
No results on the biopsies yet so the prognosis is unknown as I write this 6 days after the surgery. Could be anything from we got it all consider yourself cured to it's already moved to your liver. Then the chances of cure are 1 in 4.
So, here I sit, home from the hospital after 6 days, looking at 6-8 weeks of recovery time with no idea what happens next at this time.
I tell you all of that to tell you this:
If your doctor says it's time for a colonoscopy; GET IT DONE.
Then maybe your family can go to Branson for the week instead of having to sit in a hospital room waiting to hear the report from the surgeon.
Pa Rich | |
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The report from the surgeon
