A bit of good news

It’s not often that stage II cancer is good news, but when there is a chance you have stage III, it is. The CT scan conducted in early September indicated five or six lymph nodes were inflamed. Dr. Arshad, my gastroenterologist in Bowling Green, said the CT scan didn’t provide the detail necessary to determine if the lymph nodes were inflamed because of the presence of cancer, an infection, or something else. Last Thursday’s endoscopic ultrasound indicated there is only one, 2 millimeter lymph node considered to be abnormal. There is a small chance it is malignant. One rectal cancer study found that lymph nodes of 1 to 2 mm had a 9% malignancy rate and lymph nodes of 2 to 5 mm had a malignancy rate of 17%. The odds seem more in my favor than I thought two months ago.

The procedure included the placement of six, gold fiducial markers as mentioned in my previous post. They are very small – the diameter of a small mechanical pencil lead and less than one-quarter inch long – so the monetary value of my body did not increase significantly. My hope is they will greatly increase the accuracy and efficacy of the radiation treatments.

The prep prior to the procedure went well. I got through Wednesday’s fast on sweet tea and Pepsi. There were only a few times my stomach made noise. Mid-afternoon I took four Dulcolax tablets and around 5:00 started drinking the MiraLax solution. The worst of it was over before 8:00 and I slept well that night. Thursday morning I started the other half of the solution shortly after getting out of bed, even though the directions said I didn’t have to start until 10:00. I wanted to get it over with well before going to the hospital. I never felt especially hungry or weak. I did drink some Gatorade, which may or may not have helped.

After the Propofol wore off, about the time Mom and I got to Denny’s for an early dinner, I felt fine. I ate too much, but the double cheeseburger I ordered looked and tasted very good. My stomach grumbled afterwards for a while probably due to the shock of all that beef after having nothing for about 45 hours. However, I made it through the night with no problems as a result of the dinner or the procedure.