Discovery and Removal of the Colon Cancer
Since I came to the hospital as an emergency, preparation for the exploratory surgery was jammed into a very short period. I'm confident that everything necessary was done, but it was done fast. I barely remember some of the steps, I know I just initialed some of the myriad forms, and I know they didn't have time/take time to shave my abdomen.
Now, I'm not an MD and it's been a LONG time since I took biology, so if I happen to use the correct words in describing this operation, it will be sheer luck.
Having done every noninvasive thing possible, the surgeon elected to do an exploration. He made an 8" or 9" slice starting about two inches below the sternum, right down the middle of the abdomen with just a slight detour around the belly button. He found blockage of the small and large intestine (surprise!) and followed it to the cause. It was a tumor that surrounded the colon and gradually shut down its function.
The surgeon removed a 7 cm segment of the colon including the cancer and with it the associated lymph nodes. On the diagram above, the segment removed would be between the labels "Descending Colon" and "Sigmoid".
I can only guess that backed up material was removed from the colon and maybe even the small intestine, since I saw very little of such material output just after the surgery and there must have been a large quantity.
I had had an appendectomy back in the dark ages when medicine was not very sophisticated. The resulting scar is large and ugly. The surgeon went right through that scar to puncture the cecum and insert a tube. This cecostomy provided drainage of material from that end of the colon.
A 2" or 3" horizontal incision was made through the abdomen and peritoneum, just above the top end of the removed colon segment. The upper end of the healthy colon was redirected through this incision, turned back on itself like a sock, and attached to the skin. The lower end of the healthy colon was sealed with sutures to await reattachment.
This diagram shows the configuration after the surgery. The picture shows the wounds and the stoma. The cecostomy (the + in the diagram) has pretty much healed and is in the fold of the appendectomy scar.
The surgeon tells me that while I was open he did a thorough search for any other problems and found none.