Hi mgb20, following a very uncomfortable blockage (I had had no carcinoid syndrome), on July 1, 2022 I had the surgical removal of a neuroendocrine tumor in the small bowel. I’m a relatively healthy 81 year old man.
It was “laparotomy general surgery” (large incision). The surgeon removed a well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor with a 1.2 cm greatest dimension. Tumor was also present in 1 of 6 lymph nodes. He removed 19 cm & 5 cm segments of bowel in a resection of distal jejunum. Staging: pT2, pN1, pMx. For a week after I was home from the surgery I had significant night sweats but none since that.
I tolerated the anesthesia and surgery well, in fact recovering quicker than from the anesthesia than in previous surgeries. Hospital recovery was from July 1 to home on July 10. It would have been a shorter stay but I had some problems with reestablishing normal bowel movements. I walked more than any patient my nurses had had recently, they all agreed and I think this helped with my bowel recovery. I have had surgeries to remove: prostate, thyroid, appendix, one kidney & gall bladder and this was “easy,” comparatively speaking. I’m fortunate that two subsequent PET scans with dotate (CU-64) and CTs have not showed any metastasis and I have no symptoms. A perusal of stories on this group will hopefully reassure you that NET is usually slow growing. Good luck, Bob.