ztweb Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Someone's post the other day got me to thinking ... When they remove a tumor, a met or whatever...what do they do with it? What does it look like? Please know I don't mean this to be an insensitive question. Blessings, Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debi Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Jen, The thought of seeing the tumour that they took from me totally repulses me. I don't really care what it looked like (this way my nightmares have no 'face') or what happened to it (I know what happened to me ) - the only important thing was to put as much distance between my body and it as possible, and I was lucky to be able to do so. My opinion, maybe I'm sensitive. Sometimes questions make you think, sometimes things are better left unthought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolhg Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I think the tumor goes to the pathology lab and the pathologist examines measures and examines it. I think now they can examine a tumor and tell how agressive/non agressive it is and determine what more treatment a patient might need. Let me tell you this true story. When I taught 4th grade the students would have 'show and tell'. They would bring something from home to share with the class. They would stand before the class and talk about whatever they had brought. One day on my desk was a ice cream looking plastic cup and on the outside of the cup was written "Mrs. Rojas". I opened the cup and there were three little round marble things in it. I took them out and looked at them trying to figure out what they were. All of a sudden one of my students shouted out with a great deal of pride, "Those are my mother's gall stones. I brought them for show and tell". Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twodogs Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 The one they took from me wasn't from my lung it was from Squamous Cell Skin Cancer on my leg, (kind of a secondary issue). It came from my inner thigh area and it was the ugliest looking hunk of tissue I ever saw. I certainly wouldn't want it for anything. The area I could see from the skin side was about the size of a quarter but the hidden portion was big and nasty. "...the only important thing was to put as much distance between my body and it as possible, and I was lucky to be able to do so."...Thanks Debi John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaze100 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I saw a program on Health TV last night where they removed some tumor/tissue from a young boy's brain. His family was Northern California Native American. They took the tissue home in a little glass jar. They had a family ceremony and he buried the jar at the foot of a big pine tree in the woods. I could see their point. It was a part of him. Burying the tumor was a way of putting it behind him. I'm sure my tumor was a bloody mess. I wouldn't want to see it. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 When they took the pic of my wife's tumor and was showed to me i would have thought it was a big ugly open sore if they had not told me what i was looking at........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chloesmom Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I signed paperwork before surgery that mine could be used for research purposes if the university saw fit. They actually sent me a letter about a year or so later wanting to reiterate permission to use it for some kind of research. I had no interest whatsoever in seeing it, but I feel like maybe, just maybe it could help contribute to better treatment, a cure, or who knows what. I'm happy thinking that, but as has been said, I don't want it anywhere around me. Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don M Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I asked my surgeon if I could have my lung in a jar. He said no, but I got to keep my rib. It is in my desk drawer, along with a few teeth. I want to have as much of myself together as I can when I die. Don m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connie B Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I asked if I could see my lung after they removed it and my doctor said SURE! In my case I never did get to go down to pathology and see it because I wasn't feeling up to it, however my hubby and daughter and two of my friends went down to see it and they said they were very shocked to find that the cancer (tumor) was off white in color. We always think of cancer as being black. They also showed my family and friends that my lung had discoloration on it and what that discoloration meant (reds and blues). It meant that they could tell I lived in a highly polluted area, possibly near a freeway or factor etc. My lung was in the pathology lab for 3 days and then I don't remember where they said it went. I'll have to ask my family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWest Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 After surgery, the pathologists look through the tumor and surrounding lung and all of the lumph nodes. They then put the material in a waxy, plastic substance, separated into small pieces, and store them case by case. Sometimes pieces are used for comparison with another tumor years later, or sent for some test, something like EGFR mutation testing, or whatever new test may emerge in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowflake Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 My son asked to see it. I wish they would have let him. I wish he had been able to view it and put it out of his mind, because at ten, it would have been like a booger or something similar to him (he's a boy, obviously). He would have proof that it was no longer in there instead of just the word of some people he didn't know... Kids get scared, too. It was my understanding that if a "body part" was no longer needed for research/pathology/etc., it was cremated. I could be wrong, I've been wrong before, once, I think... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbara5452 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 What a great question, I laughed and laughed at the responses. And Don wanting as many body parts that he can take with him. FUNNY.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2weimies Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I never thought to ask my surgeon what if anything he would do with whatever he removed. I certainly don't have any attachment to anything that caused me a heath crisis or mutated without my permission. I echo the sentiments expressed that if it could help research in some way then I think that would be the best possible senario. Now I wonder in all those consent forms I signed if I consented to that??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellakc2 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 They biospy it and then freeze it to keep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.C. Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 the look like: hard to tell because usually to get clear margins the tumor is inside the mass removed. do with it: pathology first and sometimes part (or cuts) sent to different hospital to compare or see rare tumor, rest frozen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzie Q Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 Connie, Kind of a weird thought...going to visit your own lung! ~Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernrol Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 I just like to see them GONE! Stay positive, Ernie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connie B Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 Suzie Q, Sorry if you think I am weird, but with my family history of lung cancer, and then me having it, I just wanted to see what the beast looked like that took so many of my family members away from me. I asked my doctor if he thought it was strange of me to want to see it and he said, people do it all the time. (I never got to see it anyway) Can't be anymore weird then DonM asking to take his home in a jar or Becky (Snowflakes son) asking to see his moms??? I guess DonM and I and Becky's son are the weird-os of the group! That's not nice to call people weird if you have never walked in there shoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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