I have results

It was deja vu all over again -- the doctor told me to call, so I called. The office told me that results are not ready until a week to ten days, then basically hung up. You know - the usual thing when you have a kind-hearted doctor but the front officestaff is filled with blockers.

THEN...the doctor called me tonight. At 8:30 on a Friday - that never means good news. The polyp was, indeed, cancerous. He feels like they got it all, but it was really close to the colon wall and recommends surgery to be sure. He will coordinate with my PCP and we'll see what the next steps are.

It is nice to have an answer, so at least I know where to go from here.

On another, somewhat related note, I don't know if any of you read the article on Randy Pausch in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. He is a professor at CMU, and I was friends with him when I was an undergrad and he was a grad student. (He is good friends with my boyfriend from that time.) He was also on Good Morning America this morning.

Anyway, he gave a great talk -- if you are curious, here is the link:
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/global_news/?q=node/42

Universities often have a "last lecture series" where they invite professors to give a lecture that they would give if it were their last lecture. In Randy's case, it really may be his last lecture, as he is dying of pancreatic cancer at age 46. It is, however, quite uplifting and energizing and funny.

I was coming off the good feelings of that lecture, which softened the blow a bit and actually made me feel so lucky that they found this. So, an unlikely role model at a good time, and a reminder to live while we are living!

That's it for now,

Love, Marie

From Anemia to Cancerous Polyp

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds all of you well and happy! I wanted to follow up on
my colonoscopy e-mail. I had the procedure done on Tuesday.

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for all the suggestions and support!
It was really helpful.

I was initially sent for a colonoscopy because I was diagnosed with
severe anemia, and they wanted to see if it was coming from there.

The good news is, they found the source of the anemia, which was a
large, bleeding polyp. They removed it. Yay.

The bad news is, the doctor thinks it looks cancerous. The results
will be ready on Friday, Monday at the latest. And then we'll know more.

So...here we go again. The waiting game. We've all been there, for
one reason or another! This reminds me so much of fertility, all over
again, waiting for results.

The other good news (to end on a high note!) is that colon cancer is
completely curable if caught early, which this would be. Yay again.

Thanks so much for all of your support, and for listening and being
there. I'll follow up with the results when I get them.

Love, Marie