New here, need some advice please

Hello everyone! I really need some help and I'm hoping I'm not bringing up something that's already been addressed but I probably am. I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer on Dec 31, 2013. I had an ostemy done at the end of January and a port-a-cath inserted in February. The tumour was advanced enough that my surgeon wanted bigger margins to work with so I had radiation and chemo for 8 weeks in March and April.

I had the tumour removed on June 12 and then had two complications which prevented my having the follow up chemo within the three months they like to start it within. One was two abcesses and the other was my incison bursting open from infection five weeks after the surgery. My cancer was class three due to three lymph nodes being involved. When he resected it the bowel had already torn from the size of the tumour. My tumour was situated very low and close to the rectum. They took out 14 inches of bowel.

So I'm finally staring follow up chemo on Oct 6 which will be almost four months port operative. I'll be getting Fulfox (sp?) every two weeks for four months so I guess that's sixteen treatments. The last time I saw my chemo oncologist I asked how effective the chemo would be after this long as I've read that the effectiveness reduces monthly and ideally would have been started at twelve weeks after surgery. She gave me a non commital answer and then said that I 'might as well go ahead with it'.

That's my dilemma. It's a strong chemo and I don't want to have to go on it unless I'm confident that it'll make a difference. From what I read it sound like the chance of recurrence will be about the same as if I hadn't gone on follow up chemo. I can't seem to find any real evidence to tell me what to do. I really don't want to poison my body for no good reason and I'm feeling good right now and need to get back to work. My brother is on the exact same chemo right now and he ended up in the hospital.

Can someone give me some advice or direct me to where I can get some good information that isn't out of date? I find it interesting that my brother is on the same chemo to try to cure his cancer of the esophagus and has a good sized tumour yet I might have some loose cancer cells and will be on the same chemo and I 'might as well'?  Most likely I won't back out of having the chemo but if I'm going to be sick as a dog and risk permanent damage to my body I want to know that I'm not doing it because I 'might as well'. If I don't do it and it comes back I'll really be kicking myself.

For the record, I'm adopted so my brother's cancer and mine have no genetic link.

Thank you so much, I've talked to my friends and family about this but nobody has had colon cancer, they've had breast cancer and my family is scared for me not to do it. I should add that I'm fifty-one years old and in pretty good shape. I don't drink and have never smoked. I'm active and am not much heavier than my ideal weight. I've had IBS as long as I can remember.