operation for bowel cancer of someone age 80?

Question

My mother is 80 years old and has been told she has bowel cancer and has to have operation, she has leaking heart valve and vascular vein leg desease, does anyone know of anyone else that has had this operation with other problems and how they got through it. I would also like to know if you know of anyone that has been told that it is bowel cancer and it has turned out to be a hernia. thankyou

Answer 1

Some questions you can ask her doctor:

What will happen if she does not have the surgery?

Are there other options, such as chemo or radiation?

What are the odds of her surviving the surgery?

If she does survive, and the surgery is a success, how many more years can she expect to live?

You can help gather all the info. Your mom will have to decide if it's worth it.

Answer 2

My Aunt had an operation for bowel cancer at this age.
She then went through a course of chemotherapy.
This gained her several years.
She was mortified at needing to have a "bag" for waste after the operation and her favorite get well present was a pretty throw rug she could hide everything under!

I can't understand how this could possibly be confused with a hernia!

Answer 3

My grandfather had, what I'm told, was bowel cancer.

He went through an operation for apparently it worked and they caught it in time.

I have never heard of the misdiagnosed case in which the real problem turned out to be a hernia.

From initial examination (non-invasive, or perhaps cat scan) i could see how doctors might confuse unidentified lumps wrong, but usually before they go announcing cancer, they have done enough tests to confirm with reasonable certainty.

My grandfather had this at a considerably younger age (74 or 75), so this may be harder for her on the surgery thing.

My prayers go to her and you.