That little room....

On Wednesday Husband was scheduled for an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. They found colon cancer.

I'll wait. You can let it sink it. 

And now here's where you all get...THE REST of the story. 

In July we found out that Husband had the 12 kidney stones... kinda a lot :) Since July, he had a stent put in (to move one of the stones back up to his kidney) two lithotripsy surgeries with his urologist to BLAST the stones, an appointment with an endocrinologist who wanted a scan of his parathyroid to try and figure out why he was MAKING so many stones (inconclusive and NOTHING wrong with is parathyroid), and finally an appointment the first week of February with a Nephrologist to try and get to the bottom of the stones.

 During routine blood work it was found out that "all of a sudden" (air quotes because you don't really all of a sudden) became severely anemic. His PCP and his Nephrologist both called the day before he left for his long ice fishing weekend wanting him to get RIGHT in for more blood work and explained to us that it could mean he was bleeding from somewhere in his GI track. 

We met with his PCP as soon as he got back from his trip and his doc seemed very reassuring that with his age and no family history that it was probably nothing and started him on an iron supplement. However, just to cover all his bases he set us up with a GI doc and we headed on over to his office a week later. The GI doc, although very sweet, did not make us feel as assured that it was "nothing". He got Husband right in for...this past Wednesday.

Sweet MIL came to the house at 5AM so that we could get to the hospital for 6AM. We took Miss B with us and left Minnie to wake up on her own and have a fun day with her friends at a winter carnival ~ pics to follow :) 

Of course we had run the gamete of all that COULD be wrong and we knew that the "C" word would be absolute WORST case scenario. I went to the waiting room with Miss B and left her in her stroller. I started rocking it with my foot and read my Bible study book. She fell asleep. This.is.not.normal. A few minutes later an another doctor came out... he walked right up to a woman's husband and said... "she did JUST fine...things look good..." I looked at Miss B and thought...."you are sleeping because I'm not going to be able to deal with you..." not 10 minutes later I saw Husband's doctor come.. .just to the double doors and motion me to him. The pit in my stomach. He started taking me down a hallway and I knew... we were headed for one of those "little rooms"... the ones where they take the family members to tell them their lives are going to change and it is NOT GOOD. 

He started by drawing a sketch of Husband's colon and to be honest my mind was already at worst case scenario. I let him talk and then I asked the question that felt like it was not even me talking... is it cancer? He looked at me and said... "I think it is." 

Devastation. Shock. And all the while thinking... GET.ME.TO.MY.HUSBAND.

The next few hours were a blur... Husband still kinda druggy from his tests but knowing basically what was going on, talking to sweet MIL, and losing it with SIL L. We left there with an appt for a CAT scan the next day and an appointment with a general surgeon the following Wednesday. 

The more I thought about it... the more I wanted "the Mecca" :) Husband and I talked about it and he agreed to head to the "big city". People come from ALL OVER to our "big city" and I wanted Husband with THE BEST.

I called "the Mecca" yesterday to find out if there was anything we could do SOONER than a consult next Wed. The colon oncology RN coordinator called me back this morning. Turns out she went to high school with SIL Bets and Husband ~ I love my last name :) She told me that she had a doc in mind who is a cancer surgeon specializing in the colon. The best of the best. She also said that she could get us in at 12:30 TODAY.

We went to "the Mecca" and met with the team. They had Husband's CAT scan results, the pathology report and the colonoscopy results. They did see some areas of concern on both his liver and the surrounding lympnodes but they are all too small to determine one way or another... SO... she has scheduled him for surgery on Monday at 1PM. The tumor has attached itself to the muscles in the wall of his abdomen so she will be taking some muscle in addition to the tumor, surrounding lympnodes and ANYTHING that she thinks is concerning on the liver while she's in there.

 

 Any further treatment (chemo) will be decided after they remove the mass and evaluate where they feel it may have spread.

 

We definitely felt more encouraged after this appointment and are very thankful to not have to go the weekend with the waiting. 

$UCK. That's pretty much how I feel. 

I did hear Husband on the phone tonight though and he said that after this appointment... "I had hope that I was going to make it"... 

yah you are big guy... cuz I'm not doing this by.my.self.