New member; mother diagnosed with stage IIIB

   I was dxed stage3c into six nodes. Had surgery and a year of chemo. I have been cancer free for around two months short of 16 years. There are no guarantees in life with cancer but yes some of us do survive and not for just a short time . My best wishes to you and your mom ,I hope things go as well as they can. Ron.

Geeisme said:

Anxiety

I can so relate to your situtation.  My husband has been battling stage 3C in 2010, now stage 4.  Just when I think I have my anxiety in check it rears it's ugly head again.  Four and a half years into this I wish I could share some magical tidbit on how to overcome the anxiety but I haven't found it.  We are all wired differently.  Don't be too hard on yourself.  It will get better.  My husband had some fall-back weight to help him through chemo.  However my sister 41 was dx with stage 4 colon cancer in May.  She is doing really well with chemo and has very few side effects, hopefully your mom will do the same.  

It's different for everyone. Your mom may do quite well with the chemo or have a rough time, there's no way to know. I was hoping I'd lose some weight with chemos and surgeries and all that fun stuff but I only lost just over twenty pounds. I'd have been glad to lose another ten on top of that. The doctors will try to make sure that she maintains her weight as the dosage is dependant on it. I haven't had nausea badly enough to actually vomit either time. I have gagged while brushing my teeth. Mostly I just have a loss of appetite.

I wanted to add that I'm so sorry you're going through this. I think it's harder on the family than the prson dealing with it. Don't let it suck your life from you. You have to care for your mom but the best thing you can do is continue on and live as if this terrible thing hasn't entered your life. On New Year's Eve 2013 I had to tell my husband and daughter that I had colon cancer. We had no answers as I wasn't told it was stage III until I had the surgery in June. I try very hard not to let this affect us any more than it has to. 

I'm so sorry to hear about your mom.

I was diagnosed with colon cancer stage IIIB in August 2009 at age 58. Like your mom, I had a colectomy followed by chemo. I had 3 lymph nodes involved. I made it through the full 12 treatments of Folfox, a treatment every 2 weeks, though several times a treatment was postponed for a week when my red blood cell counts were off. So altogether it took a little over 6 months. I had no problems with the first few chemo treatments, but after that I slowly developed the common side effects of cold sensitivity and mild neuropathy in my hands and feet. The cold sensitivity went away almost immediately after chemo was over, and the neuropathy more slowly, but it's almost entirely gone now. I did lose weight (which I could afford to lose) so I can understand your concern about your mom since she is so small. Everyone is different and reacts differently so you'll just have to see how your mother does. The doctors should keep a close eye on how she reacts to chemo, and they can adjust the treatments for her if necessary. I was teaching high school special education at the time I was diagnosed, and I took off the first few months of the school year for surgery, recovery, and the beginning of chemo (doctor wanted to see how I did with chemo before giving me the ok to work). I went back to school and taught during the last several months of chemo, taking off a couple of days every other week while I was having treatment. 

It's been 5 years now and I've been NED since then--my CEA has been normal, scans have all been good, and annual colonoscopies have picked up a few tiny polyps that were removed. I continued teaching up till my retirement this past June, which was my choice--I just decided 41 years of teaching was enough!

I know your mom appreciates and is encouraged by all the support you are giving her. I hope everything goes well for her. Take care of yourself too--it sounds like you really do have a lot going on right now.      

I was diagnosed 3b too march of 2013. In July of 2014 a met was discovered in my liver so now I'm stage 4. Stay positive, there are lots of late stage survivors out there! Folfox wasn't too bad for me, I would highly recommend emend for nausea. Good luck to your mom. BTW, my brother and his wife are pharmacists, they went to USC.

Easyflip/Richard