need to hear success stories

Becky58

My father recently had surgery for colon cancer and during his stay in the hospital they found spots on his liver that turned out to be a stage 4 cancer. Has anyone out there been in this same situation or known of a family member or friend that has survived this? The doctors did give him hope undergoing chemo treatments but they can not begin those until he heals from his surgery which will be a few more weeks. I've just been looking around the discussion pages for similar stories for encouragement.

johnom

Dear Becky,
There are many folks on here who are Stage IV survivors and you will hear from some of them. It's a shame your dad has to go through this, and we've done the surgery as well, and it's hard,too.
But, there are new drugs, new treatment protocols, and he has you! That's a lot in and of itself! I know how scary this is, and will keep you both in my prayers.

spongebob

Becky -

If you scroll down to the bottom this page to "Search Discussion Groups" and enter "liver mets" or "stage IV" and search "just this group", I suspect you will find dozens of discussion threads regarding stage IV liver mets.

Like johnom said, there are tons of stage IV survivors here that can tell you their story - you can also check out people's personal pages and search by "colon cancer" and "stage IV" to see people's personl stories.

Hang in there. Keeping you and your dad in my prayers.

- SpongeBob

StacyGleaso

Hi Becky,

I was stage 4...today, all clear. I was diagnosed in 2001. There are SO many success stories here, and SO many people willing to share their stories to offer hope. Don't give up, don't EVER give up! (In the words of the late, great Jim Valvano). As long as you have breath, you have hope. You have come to an incredible place here, filled with incredible people. Each one offering words of wisdom, hope, faith, and laughter. I think it's routine to have a recovery time after surgery prior to starting chemo. The body really needs to build up strength to endure the chemo. I was lucky enough to have no side effects at all. To get a little more insight on others here, read the personal web pages of those who post. It will offer tremendous hope!

All my best to get to that road of recovery, strength, and healing,

Stacy

jana11

Hi Becky, I too am a stage 4 survivor. I had a lung met. My primary tumor was rectal cancer, which is more likely to go to the lungs because of the blood supply.

Anyway, I was diagnosed 2002. I have been working full time during it all, sans surgery recovery. I too had to wait post-op to heal before starting chemo. The side effects from chemo were mild for me, thank goodness. My second time around I even gained weight on the chemo - only I could gain weight on chemo, but off the tangent.
Tell your dad to fight a good fight. THe new drugs, radiation, etc are amazing... and the research continues!
Take it all day by day and try to enjoy every single moment.

When your dad's chemo get closer, have him come here for more side effect info. I hope he heals quickly and easily.

take care, jana

slammer

Hello Becky, I too am a stage IV colon cancer patient, I am doing chemo again for the 2nd time but so far so good, and I can not relate to the liver mets but I had Lymph nodes to worry about and my chemo is shrinking them, my Oncolgist says so I am pleased with my outcome from the chemo. There are so many new drugs and radition treatments that are so much more advanced that we do have a chance of beating this, As others have said in here to you! Keep the positive and best outlook you can have , it does help, I must admit, I am not gonna let this get me I am stronger than IT!! I am 44 yrs now 42 when discovered, so there goes the get the test at 50 thing. But I believe mine was heriditary, (ask Sponge Bob about the name) so you too may want to be checked if you are concerned. Best to you and yes there are alot of here to support you and your father! My prayers are there also so hang in there!
Love Amy

pjenks57

My hubby was dx in Sept 2003 stage IV with mets to liver and lung. He began chemo Oct03. He is doing good. He still is on chemo (doing a round as we speak ,er type.) One of the hardest things is to stay positive, but you have found a new home with lots of folks who will lift you up and give you hope, love and laughter (sponge Bob to the rescue!). There is hope and you can count on it. Hang in there and don't forget yourself. I did for a long time and it really brought me down. But then I got a wakeup call and found that I have to stay strong and beat this WITH him but do things for ME too!
Hang in there. God bless you and your family.

madu

I was diagnosed with rectal sigmoid cancer with a met to the liver at age 31 in August 1998. I had a colon and liver resection initially and went on to have 8 months of treatment with 5FU and leucovorin (the "old" drugs - there are many newer and better drug available now) and 28 sessions of radiation. I'm here 6 1/2 years later with no reoccurence of the disease - my onc says I'm more likely to get another type of cancer (with those odds being no better than the general population) than having the colon cancer return. It is possible to survive this - they just don't track after 5 years so it's hard to see that from statistics. Try to find Stephen Jay Gould's article (I posted the link somewhere on this board recently) "The Median is not the Method" - he was given 8 months to live and lived 20 years - gotta love it. Good luck to your father.

Heidi