After my initial diagnosis and the failed attempt by my local GI to remove the tumor (which, again, I think was a pretty terrible idea that I wish I had never agreed to), the next few months were the longest of my life. I know things actually moved relatively fast, but every day felt like an eternity.
As soon as my pathology report came back from my colonoscopy confirming that the tumor was malignant, I called Moffitt Cancer Center. I can’t say enough good things about how well I have been treated as a patient there. They immediately set me up with an appointment with a gastrointestinal oncology surgeon. I met with the surgeon a week or so later, in mid-November. At this point, I still had not had any kind of imaging done. She ordered a CT and MRI to help with staging. She told me the most likely path would be surgery to remove the part of my colon with the tumor, but that we would see what the scans showed and go from there.
I just wanted to know what the plan was going to be. The catch is, you can’t know what the plan is going to be until you know what stage your cancer is. While scans are helpful, I wouldn’t know the stage definitively until after the pathology report from my surgery came back, which would tell me if the cancer was confined to my colon (stage 1 or 2) or if it had spread to nearby lymph nodes (stage 3).
The CT scan was scheduled for the same day immediately after my doctor’s appointment. The contrast made me feel weird, but overall the scan was quick and easy. This scan was important because it would show if the cancer had metastasized to distant organs like my liver or lungs.
The weekend after my CT was chaotic. My appointment with the surgeon and CT scan were on a Friday. My daughter and I had been training for the St. Pete RunFest 10k that was happening the next day, so I rushed back from Tampa, picked up the kids, and made it to packet pickup in time to get our race bibs.
It felt like I was floating between two worlds. Life went on, and I kept going through the motions, but my mind was completely consumed by what was happening in my body.
My daughter and I got up the next day and ran the 10k. This was her first 10k, and I was so proud of her and happy that we had the opportunity to run together. The race was really fun, probably the best in terms of vibes and course entertainment that I’ve experienced outside of Disney races (although Gasparilla is great too).
Since I had no idea what the timing of my surgery was going to be, I also decided to plan a last minute DIsney getaway for the same weekend. We have made a tradition of going over to resort hop and look at all the Christmas decorations. Normally we do this closer to Christmas but, not knowing if I would be having surgery by then, I wanted to squeeze it in earlier. So, after we cleaned up from the race, we headed to Disney.
I told myself I would not check for my CT results until after we got back home, but my mind was spinning the entire trip with all of the what-ifs. I did my best to stay present and just take in the Disney magic. We stayed at Wilderness Lodge, which was definitely a splurge, but I absolutely love this hotel. Walking into the lobby is a breathtaking experience. I definitely have more of a value resort budget, so I don’t have any other deluxe resort stays to compare it to, but Wilderness is just so majestic that I think it’s my favorite. I had hoped we would be there for the Christmas decorations, but we were just a few weeks too early. We still got to see the parks all decked out for the holidays and eat way too many Mickey gingerbread cookies.
I checked my Moffitt portal as soon as we were back home, and my CT results were there showing no signs of spread. I have never been so relieved. I had my MRI a week or so later. It showed the exact location of my tumor, which was high enough in my rectum and colon that surgery would be the first stage of treatment. The MRI showed a couple of “questionable” lymph nodes, but since I had the procedure with the local GI, we knew that this could have caused local inflammation and caused lymph nodes to show as enlarged even if the cancer had not spread. I still would not have the final staging until after my surgery, but all signs pointed to stage 1 or possibly stage 2 cancer.
I’m going to end this post here, because it’s getting long and it seems fitting to stop somewhat in the middle of the story in a post called “waiting.” I’ll get to the rest of the story soon, I promise.
Duncan Outruns Cancer 