Calling all stage 2 rectal cancer survivors, need advice

fred1247

Hi everyone have posted a few times over the past many months. I was diagnosed with rectal cancer on the 28th of July, since had radiation and chemo. On October 30th had surgery and 14 inches of colon and rectum were removed, and a temporary colostomy, that will be reversed in 6 to 8 weeks. The surgeon pulled 17 lymph nodes and all were negative, my surgeon told me that the pathology is stage 2. My question is what treatment if any is the norm for stage 2 rectal cancer post surgery and second question for those that have had there plumbing re connected, did you experience any problems with bowel movement. Should have mentioned that my tumor was located 8.5 cm in the rectum. Just trying to anticipate where I may be heading next.


Thanks

Buzzard

Post Op Chemo
Fred,
After my surgery in which I had the inner spincter muscle removed the rectum and part of my colon and have a permanent sigmoid ostomy. I am now after 6 weeks of recoup am doing 6 months of post op systemic preventative chemo with treatments every other week starting with a 4 hour treatment on Monday, a 2 hour treatment on Tuesday, and they take off the fanny pack pump that I wear for 46 hours Monday morning through Wednesday evening then off for 2 weeks. I have 12 treatments that are every other week and I will start my 5th this coming Monday. They are sometimes put off a week because of low white blood count(less than 1.4). I had 3 shots of Neupagen Mon Tues and Weds to get my count up and will continue on Treatment next Monday......There are quite a few options that the Onc will figure out but this was mine.....
As far as reconnection I have a friend that has been reversed and she is not liking it very much although she is managing she has not got a lot of control and really has to watch her food intake . She said she doesn't know if it is worth it or not but Im sure after she gets all control back it will be.

fred1247

Buzzard said:

Post Op Chemo
Fred,
After my surgery in which I had the inner spincter muscle removed the rectum and part of my colon and have a permanent sigmoid ostomy. I am now after 6 weeks of recoup am doing 6 months of post op systemic preventative chemo with treatments every other week starting with a 4 hour treatment on Monday, a 2 hour treatment on Tuesday, and they take off the fanny pack pump that I wear for 46 hours Monday morning through Wednesday evening then off for 2 weeks. I have 12 treatments that are every other week and I will start my 5th this coming Monday. They are sometimes put off a week because of low white blood count(less than 1.4). I had 3 shots of Neupagen Mon Tues and Weds to get my count up and will continue on Treatment next Monday......There are quite a few options that the Onc will figure out but this was mine.....
As far as reconnection I have a friend that has been reversed and she is not liking it very much although she is managing she has not got a lot of control and really has to watch her food intake . She said she doesn't know if it is worth it or not but Im sure after she gets all control back it will be.

Post Op Chemo
Thanks Buzzard, where you diagnosed stage two just wondering, because that seems like a lot of chemo. I am meeting with my oncologist the 3rd of December to see what he has planned. Just trying to get a handle on what I might expect. I talked to a friend of mine that had been reconnected and he had some initial problems for about the first 3 months and then began getting back to about 80% of normal, using a fiber supplement. I guess everyone is different, I just hope my reconnection goes OK. My surgeon told me that the area that was radiated was removed and he felt that I should not have any big problems. I guess we will see in about 4 or 5 weeks.

Thanks

Buzzard

fred1247 said:

Post Op Chemo
Thanks Buzzard, where you diagnosed stage two just wondering, because that seems like a lot of chemo. I am meeting with my oncologist the 3rd of December to see what he has planned. Just trying to get a handle on what I might expect. I talked to a friend of mine that had been reconnected and he had some initial problems for about the first 3 months and then began getting back to about 80% of normal, using a fiber supplement. I guess everyone is different, I just hope my reconnection goes OK. My surgeon told me that the area that was radiated was removed and he felt that I should not have any big problems. I guess we will see in about 4 or 5 weeks.

Thanks

Staging
Actually I never heard what stage I was or don't remember. The Dr in Nashville seemed to think there was no lymph node involvement at all although through chemo/radiation treatment there were 22 nodes that were so small due to radiation shrinkage they were not able to use them in pathology. My cat and Pet scan showed nothing except for the 1 tumor. I did get clear margins all around thus losing my possibility for reconnection. No biggy here.
After surgery there were no nodes showing any signs of cancer so he tells me that none were involved. The Onc here informed me that post op chemo increased the percentages of non re occurrence by 5%. My cancer surgeon said it would increase it by 15-20%. The post op use to be a year and they have now cut it back to 6 months. It is simply a preventative to prevent systemic re occurrence in the case that something minute' got away. Its a no brainer for me. I would hate to not go through it and then re occur and wonder if I did because of non participation in post op treatments.
I just talked to my friend and she is liking the re connection more each day now so great for you...... :-)

nanagrandma

I was stage3.I had a
I was stage3.I had a reconnection and i still have some problems with my bowels but i also had radiation after the recconection so some of it might also be from that.It does get better little by little. Good luck with yours.

funnyguy

stage 2 survivor
I was stage 2 rectal cancer and had a lower anterior resection to remove entire rectum with a temporary ileostomy. After initial surgery I kept the ileostomy for 6 months to take 6 more rounds of post surgery Xeloda. This was after have 5 weeks of Xeloda and Radiation prior to Surgery. I saw 3 medical oncologist and 2 recommended taking the adjuvant chemo and one left it up to me. The reason I waited for ileostomy reversal was to avoid diarhea issues from chemo with the new plumbing.

After finishing 2nd chemo regimen, I had the reversal. AFter a couple of weeks of allowing my body to get used to processing food again, all is well. Every once in awhile I'll find a food that doesn't sit too well with me. I used to be able to eat anything. 18 months after surgery I've only had one accident. What's that line from the movie in the bucket list..."sometimes...you can't trust a fart..."...anyway...it just takes getting used to and watching to keep a diet that's higher in fiber and lower in grease. meaning you want slow moving bulk and not jello through a straw...:)