Hopefully getting results tomorrow

[starsandbucks]

Well, I’m finally getting my results tomorrow!

Background: stage II colon cancer survivor and I had a right hemicolectomy two years ago. I’ve had bowel issues off and on since then which I attributed to my surgery. In the past six months I’ve been drop-dead exhausted every day, had chronic diarrhea, pain to the right of my navel where my tumor was, headaches, skin issues, hemorrhoids, a leaky left eye (??). I also have fairly bad arthritis in my back and get steroid injections which help immensely. I also have a kidney stone that’s been hanging out for at least two years, a fibroid in my uterus, a benign two-inch lump in my breast and a cyst on my right ovary that’s never gone away. Gah! Don’t’ know if any of those things are related but it annoys me that I have them! It just seems like I’ve got an out-of-control autoimmune thing going on. The symptoms that have been bothering me the most are the fatigue and, derrrr, diarrhea. I never go out anymore because I’m afraid I’ll have to poop or I’m too tired to anyway. And even the people I’m closest to don’t seem to “get it.” I think they think that as long as I don’t have cancer then I must be ok.

My GI doctor (he’s new – I didn’t feel I was getting great care with my old medical team and have switched to UCLA) has been really responsive. We’ve tried a few different medications which haven’t helped and took a stool sample, which for the love of God I never want to do again. I had my yearly colonoscopy about a week and a half ago and an abdominal ultrasound yesterday. Tomorrow I finally meet face-to-face to get my results. After my colonoscopy he told me that he saw some inflammation in my colon (what’s left of it) but saw quite a bit of inflammation where my surgery was (ascending colon/terminal ileum). He mentioned the “C” word and half of me wants to get a Crohn’s diagnosis because we can move forward with getting me better and half of me doesn’t because the thought of another chronic illness is pretty devastating. Anyway, I find out for sure tomorrow. I hope!

And since there’s no one else for me to say this too I just have to complain that last Saturday I had a HORRIBLE all-day go-round with diarrhea that seems to have made one (or more?) hemorrhoids VERY angry. Now it feels like I always have to poop. I’ve never been so excited to get my butt examined as I am for tomorrow’s appointment because it’s killlling me!

 

[ginnyrdhap]

Hi Starsandbucks,

Sorry to hear about your health issues. I totally know how you feel as I've had a number of problems over the years too. I just had my first colonoscopy today to confirm Crohn's and will get biopsy results in 1 to 2 weeks. That seems like forever because I also just want a diagnosis so I can start a treatment that gets me back to more of a normal life.

I hope the doctor can help you out with that darn angry hemorrhoid. Sounds so painful.
Good luck getting a diagnosis and some relief.

 

[starsandbucks]

Thank you! As you can probably guess from my list of gripes above I feel like I'm always waiting for results, and it is REALLY hard! I hope you get some answers soon as well.

 

[Earnellzwifey]

I am hoping to get the results of my scope tomorrow too. I's cross my fingers for the both of us. I already have my dx just waiting to see the true extent of damage going on in there. I also have ovarian cyst, uterine fibroids, endometrial hyperplasia, skin issues like no bodies business, and had to have a hole cut in the back of my left eye to drain spinal fluid off.

Are you my long lost twin???? :bigwave:

oh and i don't even want to talk about evil hemmies. When my D go into over drive my hemmy sticks out so bad it looks like I have a pair of testicles hanging out my butt. can you say sexy! :ytongue:, plus I have a nice little skin tag right at the top of my anus that I have lovingly named "sticky". Thanks to him I am buying more baby wipes now that when my kids were babies. lol

I hope you get some much needed answers tomorrow and get on something to bring at least a little relief.

 

[starsandbucks]

I HATE that you're going through all that but your message made me cry a little because now I FINALLY know someone, somewhere who's going through some of the same stuff and can relate to me. This whole ordeal has been really isolating. Good luck to both of us!! :thumleft:

 

[Earnellzwifey]

well GI doc finally came in and said that all my biopsy showed self limiting colitis. He does not think my crohn's is very active right now. Kinda confused but he did say that my urine looked horrible so most of my pain might be coming from the UTI. I now have a foley cath in place and I must say I do feel better.

Hoping for a good report for you as well.

 

[starsandbucks]

My results were kind of a mixed bag (detailed in my My Story thread) and then last night on the first day of starting some new medication I had a HORRIBLE pain and diarrhea episode that I don't know if it was due to the new medicines or just a bad coincidence.

When i had my hemicolectomy I was given the choice of removing half or the entire colon. After a lot of careful consideration I chose to remove half thinking it would leave me with a better quality of life. Now I kind of regret it and wish I'd removed it all because maybe I wouldn't be going through this now? Soldiering on, I guess.