Small bowel tumor

quincy

Hi amwood,

Sorry I cannot comment, because I don't have the experience, nor do I know of anyone who has.

It's good that it was found and that they are able to remove it. I hope it's benign and that your anemia problem can be taken care of and you will return to "as good as new" quickly.

Keep us posted.

Best to you,
quincy

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amwood

Thanks for your response. I finally got a hold of the report from the capsule endoscopy so I could read for myself exactly what the doctor saw. Does anyone know what a submucosal tumor is? I guess the part I'm confused on is what is 'submucosal'? The doctor described his findings seeing a "large, roundish, submucosal tumor in the small bowel". I've tried searching a little on this, but I'm finding more and more that these occurances in the small bowel are rare. I'm just trying to find out what I'm in for here......

quincy

Hi,

the term submucosa means the layer of areolar tissue under a mucous membrane.

The term submucous means beneath a mucous membrane.

The term areolar tissue means the connective tissue which occupies the interspaces of the body.

So, if you looked up areolar connective tissue tumor....maybe that would help?


I hope you're able to find more information....I can really understand the need to know and having to do the research.

Let us know when you're having the surgery.

quincy

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amwood

Thanks again for your reply. With the help of people from these boards, and my own research, I've finally found out what "submucosal" means. Apparently it's the second layer of four layers in the small intestine....so that means that the tumor has progressed to the second layer. I think that's about they can tell from the capsule endoscopy, so I'll find out more once they take it out and biopsy it. I'm still in the process of scheduling the surgery...I'm finding out this process is almost as frustrating as not knowing what's wrong (or going through all the testing to find out what's wrong). Hopefully things will all fall into place this week - I'm sure I'll be back with more questions!
Adrienne

cazajacks

I can't help on any of this medically but would just like to say i am sending you all the hugs i can and you are in my prayers and thoughts.

cazajacks

amwood

Thanks for your replies and kind thoughts. I have an appointment this Friday with the surgeon, so I'll finally have an answer to most of my questions - and a date for the surgery. I'll keep you posted, and I'm sure I'll have more questions....
Adrienne

amwood

Well I met with my surgeon yesterday and I really liked him. He has a lot of experience doing laparoscopic work in the GI system, particularly in the small bowel. I didn't learn too much more about the tumor itself yesterday, and he actually had me get a CT scan after I met with him - to give him a better idea of where it's located within the small bowel, and the size, etc. But, I did get a better sense of the surgery itself and what would happen --- he said he's going to do a resection of the area the tumor is in. I originally thought he would just remove the tumor and not take out that part of my small intestine, but apparently not. He's going to be doing the procedure laparoscopically, but at some point may have to make a small incision. And, my bowels will stop working during and after this surgery, but the amount of time it takes for them to "restart" depends on how much extra work they'll have to do....he said it wouldn't be that long if they know where the tumor is and they can just go in, do the resection and get out. We'll see....

The length of time I'll be in the hospital depends on how much exploratory work he has to do - hopefully the CT scan will show where exactly this is and they won't have to work off of a "ballpark" guess based on the capsule video. I'll probably be there from 4-7 days, depending on what's done. I won't know the results of the biopsy for 2-3 days, but he said they can usually tell whether it's benign or malignant once they remove it.

I'm having the surgery on Jan. 7 - hopefully that will give me enough time to recover and start school the end of January. He said I'd probably be on some decent pain meds for about a week, and I'd be pretty wiped out for about 3 weeks (which will put me right at the beginning of school), so we'll see. I didn't want to do this any sooner since I'm in finals right now, and then right after finals are over I'm spending the week in Tahoe....I didn't want to give up my entire winter break for this!

So that's about all the info I have right now, and I'll get the results of the CT scan Monday (I had it done early evening Friday) so I'll know more then. Does anyone know how accurate CT scans are in picking these things up? I'm really hoping they see everything they need to with that, but I thought I had read/heard somewhere that things can be missed on those tests as well...although no test is 100% accurate anyway....

gillian30

Another thing to check out is why the persistant anemia and now this tumor...I have an intestinal disease called Celiac Disease, and my small intestines were desroyed by it. Two possible side effects and signs of Celiac are anemia and small bowel tumors. It's worth it to bring it up to your doctor, and have a simple blood test and biopsy for Celiac. Small bowel tumors are rare but are more common in people with Celiac. Good luck to you!

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