In the early morning of Jan. 31, 2009, I was preparing to head to Rusty's in Arlington, TX for the first stop of the OB Cues Ladies' 9-Ball Tour. Tony got up and wasn't feeling well. He asked me to take him to see the doctor instead of playing, so I did. The doctor thought he had a urinary tract infection and gave him a shot and prescription, then sent him on his way. Sunday morning he passed a "thing", so we froze it and went back to the doctor on Monday.
"What is that?" is exactly what the doctor said.
He ordered 2 CAT scans for that Thursday, by Friday morning early he called and told us to get him to the Cancer Center IMMEDIATELY.
Tony has very agressive colon cancer. This past month has been a flurry of doctors, hospitals and a shitload of just waiting for news. He had a colon-oscopy on Wednesday the 11th of February... I'm not even going to try to spell things right. The news was very bad... however, Thursday morning they scoped his bladder (through the penis, he's very cranky about that...) and the news was better. Although they thought the tumor is very large (the GI guy told me it was the largest tumor he's ever seen), the tumor was "mobile", which means it hadn't attached to anything other than the bladder (from the colon).
So the "inoppera-able" tumor became "opera-able". On Feb. 16th, a tumor the size of a grapefruit was removed from Tony's colon and bladder. They had to remove 14 inches of his colon, which was far less than they orginally thought they needed to take. But they had to remove 2/3rds of his bladder, which was not expected. They thought it as only a small hole in the bladder. The best news, however, was that they think they have removed it all.
After his bladder and colon heal up, he will start chemo for a duration of about 6 months. They said it was Stage IV, which means it is not a question of "if" it recurs, but "when"... he will have to monitor this for the rest of his life.
Tony finally was allowed to leave the hospital on Feb. 23rd. And is grumpy as hell waiting for the "OK" to eat solid foods again.
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