My sister just diagnosed

Hi Lynn
So sorry to hear about your sister's diagnosis.

If you will share the part of the country you are in, I am sure that folks on here from that area may share their experiences with doctors and hospitals. Helping her find the best of both available in your area will be a big help.

If your sister will allow it, we often suggest that a person accompany the patient to all appointments so as to take notes or to help her remember questions she wanted to ask.

It would also help is she were to come here to the board herself. Give her a chance to hear how others are doing, ask questions, get moral support.

She is lucky to have you on her team.

Marie who loves kitties

Lynn -
I agree with Winter Marie, but let me add this:

Staging really doesn't matter. I worry more about
those with stage one, than stage three or four.

Those with a DX of an earlier stage are all too often blind-sided
months later - while the later stages know well of what to expect
right from the start...... And the treatment "right from the start" for
the later stages, is usually more intense than with the earlier staging.

(I recently lost two friends with stage one. Prognosis changed within
two months, and they both died within 3 months of the new prognosis.)

Your sister needs your support. And as Winter-Marie said, she really
needs your presence at each of her medical consultations.

Helping her accept the reality, then helping her accept the fight,
is the best favor you can do for her. It's a battle we didn't ask for,
and one we never expected to have to deal with...... But we can
do battle better when we have the support of those around us.

My best wishes are with you all!

John

I think you can be most
I think you can be most supportive by treating her exactly as you did pre diagnosis. Secondly I think keeping everything she says confidential is another huge help especially if you live in a small town. Having everyone knowing your business and talking about you is uncomfortable. My last suggestion is to not judge how she feels or what she does. She will need you to just listen. Lisa

actual quick support CC actions, pre-op
My wife was trashed following diagnoses of dysentery, -25% body mass in several weeks after a trip to an exotic locale. Then, "colon cancer...at least stage II" (really a IV) and near complete obstruction when discovered. Then I got her call overseas....

I asked for multiple biomarkers, but got no response beyond the initial CEA. What I wanted most was the CA19-9, a commonly available biomarker, and CSLEX1, if possible (it's available in Japan, apparently not much elsewhere). CA19-9 is commonly thought to be good only for pancreatic cancers, but it is actually a more general type biomarker for adenocarcinomas, with a terrific targetable therapy: cimetidine. Ultimately, the pathology sample of the tumor tissues can be definitively stained.

Immediately, I suggested that my wife adopt most of the LEF colorectal cancer protocol and general cancer recommendations including their maximum recommended dose of cimetidine for the pre-op period. We used many of their nutrient recommendations, amplified by other clinicians and researchers, with even double their doses for vitamin C and vitamin D3 (over 15,000iu/d temporarily for ~10 wks), and added high dose quinones of 500 mg coQ10 and menaquinone-4 (45 mg vitamin K2 is used in Japan for liver cancer and osteoporosis) instead of Avemar.

After surgery, we were naturally gratified to see the pathology report mention "necrosis" and "granulocytic inflamation" [massive attack], similar to some of the research papers on cimetidine, where the mesenteric invasion headed into the peritoneum just up and disintegrated at a cellular level. Every other surgeon that has seen her records has said there should be peritoneal mets amd/or that they have never seen this kind of necrosis of mets in their patients (they aren't considering "just" nutrients+cimetidine as neoadjuvant tx). Some of the oncologists seemed extremely pessimitic even though they were missing the crucial pathology report on the para-aortic mass (misreported as not there).

Now, we use even more coQ10, vitamins D3 and K2, in addition to her CIM-UFT-LV-PSK immunochemotherapy formula, than then, with frequent blood monitoring at least every 3-4 weeks.