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Diet
I am six years out and still cannot get my diet under control. i am gluten free due to my ataxia. i cannot eat salad or raw vegetables or any vegetable that is not cooked to death. I cannot have pasta, bread or rice. i have been living on chicken, salmon and over cooked broccoli and nuts (I grind them up to a paste) for 6…
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Psyllium
I am looking for directions on the use of psyllium to help lessen urgency and frequency of BMs. When I had my check-up in January, my doctor said to try psyllium for this issue. He said to start with 1/2 a dose. I tried for about a week and it seemed like it was having the opposite affect on me (more frequent BMs). This…
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PAP and HPV test (new hpv test)
For follow-up, are we supposed to be getting annual Pap smears, as well as the new HpV test? Even if we knew we initially had a negative pap, but positive for HPV and/or our tumour was HPV positive. It would not have made a difference in terms of treatment; however, I seem to recall that we should continue having gyn exams…
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Treatment Begins
Today I begin treatment. I'm nervous, but mostly I just want to get started and get through it. I've had breakfast and Xeloda and the anti-nausea med and it's not even 7:00 yet. The time change is messing with me too. I go for Chemo at 10:30 and radiation at 2:00. When I went for radiation planning, they put four stickers…
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Post Treatment Pain
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Need some encouragement, please
As pathetic as it may sound, I just sat and cried for 20 minutes in my bath. I have 9 more sessions of radiation to go, and while I'm grateful that my chemo rounds are finished, I can't seem to get a grip on the next almost 2 weeks of radiation. The pain I'm having is pretty intense, and the "sunburn" in my groin area is…
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Initial diagnosis: stage 4 anal cancer, anyone else?
Hello, I'm new to this network. My cancer is very rare, only 1 - 2% of all gastroenterological cancers. I was diagnosed in November 2016 and told my cancer was contained. However, my PET scan in December, revealed mets in the liver and the lung, putting me at stage 4. One year after a clean colonoscopy, I experienced some…
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Tired of Spammers
I am getting quite frustrated with this site. It seems that once again we are getting spammers and new members who claim to have all the answers when it comes to anal cancer who do not indicate that they have actually had or do have anal cancer. For anyone new coming into this group, please know that there are very many…
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Need some reassurance
My mom was diagnosed with stage 2 Anal cancer in January of 2015 and treated with chemo and radiation. she's been ned since June 2015. She went for a checkup last week and her radiologist was concerned about a spot im the same area,but said could be scar tissue and told her to follow up with her surgeon. She did and he…
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Need help translating into lay terms
Hi folks. I completed all the testing last week. PET scan, CT scan, Pelvic MRI and another blood test. I saw the medical oncologist for the first time and the radiologist for the second time for planning. I'm tentatively expecting to begin treatment on Monday, March 13th. First the good news. No nodes involved and it's…
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I completed treatment today!
Hello all! I completed treatment today, woohoo! That was the longest 7 weeks of my life so far, but I made it! I am anxious about waiting 6 weeks for a DRE/biopsy to make sure the cancer is gone, but I am seeing a therapist to try to learn to cope with that. I am so grateful to any/all of the people here who have helped me…
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Medicare & cancer drugs
https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/prescription-drugs-outpatient.html Oral cancer drugs: Medicare helps pay for some oral cancer drugs you take by mouth if the same drug is available in injectable form or is a prodrug of the injectable drug. A prodrug is an oral form of a drug that when ingested breaks down into the same…
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chemocare.com
chemocare.com is an excellent site from the Cleveland Clinic. In addition to information on various chemo drugs, there is also a toll free number to speak with a nurse! Have questions about chemotherapy? Call the Cancer Answer Line at Cleveland Clinic 1.844.268.3901
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MORE questions
I've been reading the report of the surgery I had on 2/2/17, and one of the items listed is as follows: Destruction of lesion(s), anus (eg, condyloma, papilloma, molluscum contagiosum, herpetic vesicle), simple; surgical excision When I asked the surgeon if it was HPV, she said she saw no indication of that, and after…
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Important Information
I don't know how to attach a pdf to this site, but perhaps you will be able to access this article from Medscape Oncology 'Important Milestone' in Anal Cancer -- Later Assessment Roxanne Nelson, BSN, RN February 28, 2017 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/876387#vp_2 It is a further confirmation that it may take as long…
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Sadness
Hi everyone, first off I want to thank all of you for the responses I have recieved to each post I have written, you all have given me much encouragement, I hope I am able to give back all that you have given to me with the same positive support. I'm posting today because I am feeling pretty depressed, I think mainly over…
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Overwhelmed
I'm not sure where to begin. I'm newly diagnosed, one week yesterday that I got the news. Yesterday I saw the Radiologist. He was pretty awesome and explained things very clearly. The entire staff at the cancer center was really nice and helpful. At this point He staged me at T 1 or 2, N-0, M-0. On Tuesday I have a PET…
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"Coning down"?
Hello! I still have 6 sessions of radiation left, but my doctor mentioned to me today that after tomorrow, they will be "coning down" the radiation area. Has anyone been through this? Know exactly what to expect? (I did ask for an explanation, and the doc said it meant he was focusing the radiation on the just the tumor…
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My Anal Cancer Journey
My Cancer Story actually began in 2001 when I was diagnosed with Stage IIIb breast cancer invading 7 of 21 nodes. I mention this because I met a few women who started with breast cancer and years later either developed anal or colon cancer. In 2011, I was dx with anal cancer in siti and had surgery. In three months it came…
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Thank you Anal forum
For some unknown reason I popped onto this forum (I'm on the CRC forum) the other day and it almost blew my mind. I was diagnosed with CRC almost five (yeah, the FIVE is here this year) years ago. I had a resection followed by FOLFOX/5FU and Raditaion/5FU. Cancer spread to my liver in 2014. The chemo was no fun, but the…
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how long until you felt better?
My dad is entering his last week of treatment and he is feeling very discouraged- he feels like he can not go on. I need to be able to give him a mental "finish line"- when he will feel better. When did you feel better post treatment?
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How long will it take to have intercourse again?
I finished chemo/radiation- the 6 week regime on Oct. 21, 2016- ended up in the hospital for 10 days at the end and am in recovery, now Fe. 2017. My vagina opening and inside has shrunk considerably. I used dialotors during treatment until i couldn't anymore and now use them again + dildo. I tried to have intercourse with…
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Hard to find info on where lumps surface after APR
Hello all, jumping boards hoping someone on this one might know the answer. I had an APR 4 years ago and have been cancer free since. I went for a GYN checkup and told my doctor I felt a lump. She said she felt nothing and it was just confusing because my vagina is now so distorted from the surgery. I moved on. Went to…
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Lower abdominal pain still early in treatment. 80 years old
My mother who is 80 started the treatment for anal cancer 2 weeks ago she had Mitomycin C and Fu-5 for five days. She seemed to tolerate chemo as well as could be hoped for, in general didn't feel well, nausea, general malaise but did not vomit. She has had 10 radiation treatments out of 33 scheduled. She felt well enough…
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Immunotherapy squamous cell
Hey there i have previsouly written a few months back, my mum is fighting anal cancer squamous cell carcinoma stage 4- tumor in rectal sphincter muscel and in near by lymph nodes, had the big surgery and hysterectomy, all nodes removed, then chemo and had a scan 6 months ago was clear it hadnt travelled at that point…
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Sorry for my absence
Hi everyone…..I must first apologize for my lack of posting lately. I have tried to read occasionally as I think about you all and how we inspire and encourage each other and how much more difficult this would all be without this forum! A couple weeks before Christmas my husband was dx with a recurrence of his blood cancer…
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Mineral Oil
Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop on here and let those of you seeking relief for pain during BMs know that my doctor recommended consuming a tablespoon of mineral oil 1-2 times a day. I have had surprisingly good results from this over the past couple of days. I am not a doctor, so I'm not giving this out as medical…
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Calendula?
I bet I am driving everyone bonkers with all my inquiries, but I have another! I've entered week 4 of treatment (halfway to the finish line!), and my rear end is beginning to feel raw and sometimes itchy. My mother-in-law gave me a tube of Calendula cream. It is homeopathic and supposedly used for treatment of sunburn,…
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2nd Picc Line and 33 total radiation sessions
Hi all! I hope this post finds you well! I am having a Picc line placed tomorrow to begin my second (and hopefully final) round of chemo. Despite having already been through one Picc line placement, I am finding my anxiety to be off the charts. WHY?! Also, I noticed when I read through a bunch of other posts that most…
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Thank you all who came before me
i have been reading this forum since my first diagnoses on Dec. 1st. I really appreciate everyone who asked questions and provided answers. The information was invaluable to me. It gave me confidence to fire my first medical oncologist when he kept saying he didn't know what I had. My journey has been bumpy. It started out…