Pain in Nick's A**: Where the sun don't shine

So back in July I had my clearing colonoscopy. Finally the doc was able to go all the way to the Appendix and Ileocecal valve (where the small intestine joins the large intestine). I should probably be given a discount as the doc doesn’t have go to as far (since they removed about 12” of my large intestine) and the path is most likely less tortuous, but I doubt that will happen. Prior to the procedure I spoke with the Doc and told her that I remembered my last colonoscopy and I’d rather that not be the case this time. She said that must have been unpleasant…yes…yes it was. She knocked me out, took a look around, found the polyp that was seen on the virtual colonoscopy, clipped that sucker off, and sent me on my way. The polyp was determined to be a tubular adenoma with no evidence of cancer. So that’s good. In a year they’ll take another look around.

On Tuesday I had a CT to check for recurrences. There are some nodules in my lungs that the docs are keeping an eye on. They don’t think they’re cancer as they have been stable on all of the previous scans. Well this scan was no different. The nodules continue to be stable. They are the exact same size as the day they found them nearly a year ago. Seeing I went through some nasty chemo and they didn’t get smaller, most assuredly they are not cancer. No doc will give you a 100% guarantee, but I'll take a 'most likely not' at this point. So the scan came back clear.

So as of today I’m considered NED (No Evidence or Disease). They typically don’t start throwing around the ‘cured’ title for colon cancer until you’re out about 5 years without a recurrence. So surveillance mode it is. I’ve got another follow-up in 3 months for blood and a check-up, another CT scan in 6 months, and another colonoscopy next July.

In the meantime I feel great. So getting back to living a normal life is in order and hopefully the last year will just become a bad memory.