Mike Schwintek

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What got us here and to this point-Dad was having some symptoms he kind of kept to himself a few months ago and after finishing up his back surgery recovery from this Summer, finally decided to go in and see what he could find out. They sent him for a colonoscopy 1/10 and he was told that day that he had colon cancer.  Things moved very quickly from there. (When you're retired, you have lots of time to get to appointments whenever they can fit you in)! He went that very same day for a CT scan from neck to hips and we were in the surgeon's office 2 days later on 1/12 for the results. Good news, that they didn't see on the scan that it had spread to any other vital organs at this point. Surgery was done on 1/19 to remove the affected area of the colon and also remove his appendix. His surgeon, James Williams is old school, in his own words, has many years of experience and believes there's no reason to have the appendix when it can potentially cause you infection later down the road when you don't want to be having to deal with that. He's a great guy who you can hear whistling before you can see him approaching. Surgery went great and Dad was in the hospital recovering for about 4 days. Pathology results from surgery revealed that 4 out of 19 of the gathered lymph nodes from the colon tested positive for cancer. Oncology consult to take place 1/29 at Minnesota Oncology in Maplewood.