New Member

Welcome to the forum. A little advice since you weren just diagnosed. Many of us including me were so overwhelmed when first diagnosed that we couldnt think for ourselves and just went through the motions following all of the doctors orders. Take a deep breath and get prepared for the fight of your life. Take someone with you to your appointments and take a pad of paper and pencil. The doctor visits can be overwhelming and very hard to retain all of the information. It is still overwhelming to me at times even after 8 years of fighting. Use your pad to write down questions you want to ask the doctors and thier answers. Take that information and educate yourself further on the internet. You might have really great doctors but it doesnt hurt to look at your options as well.

marbleotis said:

Welcome and sorry you are here

So sorry you are here, but you have come to a great place for help, info sharing, support and sometimes just someplace to vent.

Some tips:

1. Go to all appt with a note book so you can log all your questions and answers
2. You will need to find out what stage your cancer is.  There are people on this forum that are all stages and all variations of stages.  Lots of help
3. No question is stupid, only the one not asked
4. No question is off limits here,  lots of poop questions - no one is emabarassed
5. Take good care of yourself
6. Do not turn into Dr. Google - there is a ton of stuff on the internet that is invalid and just not true.  Work with your Onc for your info and go to good sources (ACS, CCTA......)
7. It is true that once you hear, "you have cancer.......", you hear nothing past that.  This is where the shock comes in.  You will be ok, breath, re-group, get all your appts made.  Be sure you like your Onc and Surgeon, 2nd or 3rd opinions are your right.  Your care should be a team effort.

You will get through this, if you are having a bad day - just allow it and move on, it will pass.

Please keep us updated, there are so many wonderful people on this site that helped me get through alot.

I will be 2 years NED tomorrow .  NED = no evidence of disease.  FYI - I was diagnosed 1/13/12 with stage 3b signet cell colon cancer at 49years old.

Welcome and don't forget to breath.   Raquel, stage 4., over 5 years since DX.  

Get olenty of rest

drink water 

eat green

eat veggies

stay positive

careful you aren't being mean to family due to DX 

you will feel better in a couple months, this will become routine.  

Welcome,and sorry you have to be here.Stay positive,and be sure you have someone with you when you see the doctors.I'm stage 4 ,snd I still have trouble remembering what the doctor says.We are here when ever you have questions or just need to vent.Everyone has bad days,and we are here to help how ever we can.Good luck,stay calm,and be positive.

We found special surgical preparation with selected supplements with generic medicines and extra blood tests beyond "standard care" very useful during this time period.  In fact, we credit much of my wife's "good luck" to them.

Basically immune enhancing measures before surgery as close to diagnosis (asap) were extremely helpful to my wife, probably life saving.  Life Extension has some useful articles for cancer and preparation for surgery. Background,  more background,  supplements.

Extra blood tests that we've used before and soon after [the first] surgery include CA19-9, CA72-4, LDH, GGTP, fibrinogen, hsCRP to create baseline data for possibly important biomarker data that cannot be retrieved later. At first, she was at least stage II then III, but she was really a stage IV. Extra data and precautions paid off, although they were not as thorough as if we had known all along. 

Also vitamin D3 is frequently greatly deficient in colorectal cancer patients and there is a blood test for that.  Dosages of 5000, and 10,000 iu vD3 per day are not uncommon here. Despite my wife's initial loading rate at 16000-17000 iu per day for 2 months, we could have used more with timely blood tests.  Six months after diagnosis, my wife still had slightly insufficient blood levels even at 12,000 iu vitamin D3 per day while on chemo!

Since some of this is nonstandard, ordinary doctors and insurance may resist, although ours have learned it's smarter not to. We also use outside medical opinions on the supplements and Life Extension protocols.  When in a hurry, we pay cash and do the necessary stuff that we decide on.  

vangbi said:

Ct scan results

 They said the good news it is the most common and has not spread but

then told me they got a surprise that wasnt expected and is not related 

to the colon but there is a lesion on left kidney so am going to lose a kidney it

sounds like . Will know more next Wedensday at meeting with surgeon. 

 They did say there will be chemo also.

I know we're not a club that anyone wants to join, but now that you're here, I hope we can provide you with plenty of support.

You've already gotten a lot of good advice from othe rmembers, but I did want to add that it's important to find out if the lesion on the kidney is indeed cancerous, and if it cancer, whether or not it is metastasized from the colon.  This may determine the type of treatment they offer.  Hopefully, they will just tell you all of this, but if they don't, it's worth asking.

Keep us posted!

Ann Alexandria

vangbi said:

 The Drs appoinments coming

 The Drs appoinments coming in fast the urologist on Monday then the surgeon wedensday then oncologist Friday and get the port put in place on the 10th looks like I'm going to be busy for a few days. Plus making the finiancial arrangments for all the bills so Wife doesnt have to worry about all that stuff.

Hi,

Welcome!  Good to hear that your treatment plans are moving forward rapidly.  I also wanted to reach out to your wife and tell her that we support and welcome her too.  I'm a former caregiver, so please tell her to feel free to send me a PM if she has any questions.

All my best,

Cynthia