My grandmother was recently diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her colon. My whole family, me included, is devastated and worried by this news, but we're also trying to cling to hope. If the cancer is stage 2 or 3 (which is what the doctor thinks it might be), it can be cured with 90% success, according to Google. Anything higher than that is bad but still treatable.
Right now our biggest worry is whether the cancer has spread to other areas. We've been rushing to get her an MRI, and it looks like the earliest we'll get one is tomorrow. In the meantime, I was hoping to get some clarification from anyone who is well-versed on the subject, just to get some peace of mind.
Based on my limited understanding, if the cancer had spread to her lungs or liver, she should be exhibiting symptoms, right? However, we've checked with her several times and she isn't experiencing any coughing, chest pain, fever, yellowish skin. Aside from some mild constipation and a tiny amount of blood in the stool, she says she's feeling no pain whatsoever.
That's what I'm clinging onto: if it were stage 4 and it had spread, we surely would be seeing some symptoms. Nevertheless, information and logic are the things that are keeping me from losing it entirely, so I would be very grateful if anyone could provide some information. I want to stress that I won't hold anything that anyone says as gospel truth, but anything that provides a high probability that things aren't as bad as they could be would really put me and my family at ease.
Right now our biggest worry is whether the cancer has spread to other areas. We've been rushing to get her an MRI, and it looks like the earliest we'll get one is tomorrow. In the meantime, I was hoping to get some clarification from anyone who is well-versed on the subject, just to get some peace of mind.
Based on my limited understanding, if the cancer had spread to her lungs or liver, she should be exhibiting symptoms, right? However, we've checked with her several times and she isn't experiencing any coughing, chest pain, fever, yellowish skin. Aside from some mild constipation and a tiny amount of blood in the stool, she says she's feeling no pain whatsoever.
That's what I'm clinging onto: if it were stage 4 and it had spread, we surely would be seeing some symptoms. Nevertheless, information and logic are the things that are keeping me from losing it entirely, so I would be very grateful if anyone could provide some information. I want to stress that I won't hold anything that anyone says as gospel truth, but anything that provides a high probability that things aren't as bad as they could be would really put me and my family at ease.
