Anyone ever have colo-rectal surgery? (Not LC related)

[Andrea]

Friends,

I have learned so much from you over the years, I am once again calling to see if anyone has had a colectomy (part of colon removed) to see how bad it was.

I have a benign mass (a lipoma) in my colon that finally started to cause significant pain. I meet with the surgeon on Tues to discuss, no one is sure what to do yet. On the one hand if it continues on the path of growth it will have to come out eventually b/c it could cause a blockage, etc. On the other hand if it stops growing, I can maybe tolerate some discomfort. And on one foot I think getting it out is best for a full biopsy since the whole thing is rare (a colonic lipoma is very rare) and on the other foot I don't want my colon chopped out since there are risks to surgery and they are confident it is benign (it was biopsied on colonoscopy)

Here is the growth pattern:

2005 3.1X2.3

6/06 4.6X3.3

10/06 5.4X2.6

8/07 6.0X2.8

5/08 5X4

Thanks for listening to me whine Us nice jewish girls are known for our whining. If anyone has had experience with the surgery I'd love to hear the good, bad and ugly.

[shannon2]

Are they going to do it laparoscopically? If so- the recovery time should be minimal. You will just have a few small incisions that you will barely be able to see once they heal. If they have to do surgery the "old fashioned" way the initial recovery time will be a little longer. It is just a bigger incision which can make things more uncomfortable for you. You will do fine with either one- they have great pain meds these days!

-Shannon

[Barb73]

Andrea,

I am sorry that I didn't see your posting before today.

Bill was diagnosed with a flat polyp back in August of 2001. It came back benign when it was excised at the time of the colonscopy.

Since it was flat the doctor didn't want to take it all due to the danger of "going straight through" the wall of the colon. Flat polyps are dangerous in their being difficult to remove being so attached to the wall - not easily "snipped" off. They are more inclined to be malignant, as well.

He made an appointment with a surgeon, Bill had a resection of the area and on both sides of the polyp and the section was sent for biopsy. The biopsy returned declaring it cancer.

He was staged 1D, and it had NOT gone through the wall. We received a second opinion on having chemo.

The oncologist said that it was not necessary.

His recovery time was minimal, and he had no side effects, except a bit of gas following the surgery.

Otherwise, he recovered beautifully.

Hope this helps. Bill's lung cancer is not related to that colon cancer. We specifically asked about that and were shown the reports.

Barbara