Cancer of the Intestine/Small Bowel-Just Diagnosed

Kahlua96

Stage 4 Small intestine Cancer

initially diagnosed at age 71 at Virginia  mason seattle as probable ovarian cancer in April 2017, after abdominal ultrasound.  Only symtom was sudden onset of bloating which didnt go away after a week. Was given followuo tests and on the surgery table within one week  

Had a total hysterectomy plus resection of small bowel tumor discovered during surgery.  Also debulked areas of carcinamatosis on my peritoneum and omentum, and removed appendix.  Pathologists could not agree on whether ovarian or small bowel was primary. Sent to md anderson for review. Received report  about 4wks later that mine is a very challenging case but all agreed it is mist likely small intestinal primary. Stage 4 of course.  Folfox chemo was recommended. Requested second opinion from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and same therapy was confirmed with exception of adding Bevasizumab to Folfox protocol Immediately.  Was given estimated survival of 1-2 years  and told that after 6 months  of Folfox4 i would be switched to oral chemo (capacitabine) for the rest of my life if the Folfox was successful.

After 4 months ct scans and ca125 tests shiwed no detectable cancer so was switched to capacitabine pills and bevasizumab infusion every 3 weeks. In Oct 2017. Am scheduled to stay on this protocol for a year if cts and tumor marker tests remain stable.

Main side effects are hand/foot syndrome, but keeping it under good cintrol with reduction of pill dosage. I never felt sick at all except a bit while on Folfox, so this diagnosis ihas been hard for me to actually believe, thiugh my brain does understand the dismal prognosis. 

Have decided to just live each day assuming there will be a tomorrow and hope I can continue to keep it knocked down until some of the promising new immunotherapies are further developed.  And cannot help but retain a sense of humor so far.  Who kniws — i might be an exception to the survivor statistics and have met an amazing number of longer term stage 4 cancer survivors since i was diagnosed — thiugh no one with small intestinal cancer!  still feel gob smacked by the whole situation — but that also makes it a bit easier to just focus on living vs the alternative.