In the beginning.....

My first blog. Where to begin? I will start at the beginning. Bear with me as I share some details that I think are important.

A few months ago, the exact number is fuzzy, I began to see some slight changes in my bowel habits. Some diarrhea, a little bloating, some very light bleeding that I attributed to a possible external hemorrhoid. I was so very busy at work, I chose to ignore them as they were not extreme and could be dismissed as nothing important. In addition, I had met the most amazing man ever and really didn’t want to be distracted with little, unimportant issues. I decided to stick with my life philosophy: ignore it and it will go away.

It didn’t. On February 16^th, I went to the bathroom and was shocked to see a toilet filled with blood. Was this just a bad hemorrhoid? Yep…no! Wait!! What’s going on? That’s an awful lot of blood. Don’t panic, I’m sure it’s normal…those were the thoughts that ran through my mind. The next morning I called and made a doctor appt. My doc was out for the week, so I saw his PA (Physician's Assistant).  

At my appointment with the PA, I answered several questions about why I was there. Then the PA did a DRE (digital rectal exam) and she said she felt an internal hemorrhoid. She prescribed a steroid suppository and said to call her if the bleeding didn’t stop and she would script a colonoscopy. I asked her to script a colonoscopy that day so I could get it scheduled as I wanted to get this handled quickly. She begrudgingly complied. Well, the suppositories worked and the bleeding stopped. Whew!! Crisis averted!! But, I decided since I was 57 and 6.5 years from the last colonoscopy, I would just get one as a precaution.  I called and requested that she script for that, but she pushed back because my last colonoscopy June 2007, was completely clean. Not one polyp. I pushed, she relented. On March 6^th I had a preventative colonoscopy. As I was waking up from anesthesia Dr. North came and shared with me and Mike that she found a polyp in the sigmoid and removed it and she announced that I had a tumor. A cancerous tumor. Inside my body. My body. Really? I eat healthy, exercise and had a perfect colonoscopy in 2007 and was told to come back in 10 years!!! She referred us to a surgeon.

The next day we got a call from Dr. North saying the type of cancer had changed based on the pathology report. Instead of rectal cancer, it was anal cancer. It was a squamous cell carcinoma. Yes, it’s what Farrah Fawcett had…and died of. She now referred us to an oncologist. Damn! It’s officially cancer! No telling myself I just had a growth that needed to be removed. I had my first melt down. But, I recovered quickly and decided to go dancing with my sweetheart that night. What a surreal evening that was. I had cancer and I was dancing. I felt fine. How could I have cancer? That’s what happens to other people…not ME!!

Well, the whirlwind began. Mike and I were on a path of learning about cancer. There is so much we never knew and I’m going to share all of it with you.

Our first meeting was with Dr. Moore, an oncologist in Fort Collins on March 11. Everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace. No one, absolutely no one had the same sense of urgency I did. I have cancer!!! Get this damn thing out of me!!! Dr. Moore was a unique individual. He told us that based on the size of the tumor I was at stage 2. He ordered more tests including a PET scan, that was scheduled for March 13^th and he wanted us to meet with the radiation oncologist. He explained that anal cancer was very, very rare (less than .05% of all cancers diagnosed each year are anal cancer) and that the treatment had not changed much in many years.  I would receive radiation every day for 6 weeks and two rounds of chemo. I went to the PET scan appt and was enthralled by the process. Pretty easy…

The next day, Friday March 14^th, we met with Dr. Moore. He said the PET scan showed a 3.5 cm tumor right where the rectum and anus merge. That’s why it was difficult to determine which one it was. But, the pathology report showed squamous cells, which meant it was anal. He also noted that my lymph nodes were enlarged, but they did not show cancer. So, he wanted another test. A transrectal unltrasound. Ok….

The following Monday we met with Dr. Petit, the radiation oncologist. He explained the radiation process. It’s quite interesting. They make a mold of me from my waist down, they line me up and place 4 tattoo’d spots on me so that they can align the machines the exact same way every day. He said the transrectal ultrasound was not needed as it would not impact his treatment protocol. He cancelled it. Ok….

While I was setting up these appts and meeting with docs, I also set up appts for a second opinion at University of Colorado Hospital. The primary oncologist, Dr. Messersmith, was on vacation. So, I set up an appt with him, upon his return, and also set up one with a radiation oncologist. We met with her on March 17^th. Because it’s a teaching school we saw the Chief Resident first. She was delightful and provided far more info than Dr. Petit. Then Dr. Schefter came in. She was wonderful. She checked me physically and determined that I was Stage 3 with a 4 cm tumor. She recommended a different chemo, as the Mytomicin C that Dr. Moore wanted to use is very hard on the bone marrow and required close monitoring. She was THOROUGH in her description and communication about what would happen during and after chemo and radiation. Dr. Schefter said they treat 30+ cases like mine, each year compared with less than 5 per year at Dr. Moore's office in N. Colorado. With such a rare cancer, Mike and I decided, even though it was a very, very long drive to University of CO hospital, I would get better treatment there. Decision made.