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Ginny5 said:

Hi. My husband was diagnosed at 46 July 06 with rectal cancer. We too have 2 school age children. Had no symptoms, told by his Fathers doc. all children over 35 should have a colonospy and there it was. He also has had an amazing attitude; we were at the hospital having the first chemo. appt. and my husband joked that it was difficult to tell who the cancer patient was! Many professionals have told me that they think it is harder for the spouse. Anyway the day I turned around was the day I found this site. There are many inspiring stories and I have found this site very helpful when I have questions to be answered. I didn't beleive people when they said in the beginning that everyone is an individual and that you can't go by the stats but now after this journey I will say I think it is completely true. My advice is to not focus on the stats which I did in the beginning. For me I have an understanding of what each stage of cancer means or can mean and I now leave it at that, every case really is individual. It has been important to me to talk to people going through this, my husband has never wanted to do this. I have talked with people who have had stage III colon cancer one person had 11 positive lymph nodes and is now 11 years clean and I met a gentleman who had stage 1 colon cancer (if you go by the stats he has a 98% chance of a five year survival) and his future is not optomistic. My husband has two more chemo rounds to go through and then an operation in May to reverse the illiostemy. Does the fear go away. Personally, I don't feel fearful (beleive me I did) but I think of it every day and I think I always will. I get scared when we get results of things or when there is an appointment and think how will we deal with bad news, and then I think well we've dealt with everything so far and we'll deal with something else if that something else ever happens. Before the operation I also wanted a guarantee and I kept pushing the doctors for answers which they couldn't give me and that has been the hardest part the not knowing but somehow I have got my head around this. (his MRI showed suspicious lymph nodes in and out of area but pathology came back negative. We may never know if nodes were positive because of the pre op. chemo/radiation).I see a professional to talk with and that has helped me with my anxiousness. We have also invested in a high quality juicer, which I think will help to keep us all healthy. Your husbands chemo. is different than mine. We are in Canada and his post operative chemo is five days then 3 weeks off for four months. What chemo drugs is your husband getting? Good luck, I am happy to answer any questions.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. It sounds like we have about the same schedule. My husband has 3 more treatments to get through and then he will hopefully have his reversal in Mid May also. That is one surgery that he looks forward to.
The chemo that he is on now is Folfox (Eloxatin, Luekovorin and 5FU) He gets it once every two weeks and goes home with the pump of 5FU for 2 days.
The biggest concern that I have right now is that his liver enzymes numbers have gone up a lot. I'm not sure if his chemo is just hard on his liver or if there would be mets to worry about. He is also on a cholesterol lowering drug (Lipitor) that may be causing problems. Always something new to be concerned about. We will hopefully find out in two weeks what is causing this. Good luck to you,