Rolled a 3

Is it stage 3A, B, or C?  The good news is after the surgery, it will be downgraded.  Mine was stage 3B after surgery, damn. As I've said in my other posts, I had the emergency operation because of the erupting thing.  I think I now get what that meant.  The mass blocked some portion of the colon that my wastes were not going out (I haven't pooped for the last 3 days until I checked in the ER so I was in danger of being poisoned).

The surgery will be for just a couple of hours.   After that is great feeling.  You'll feel as healthy as a newborn.  I was standing up the next day, and started walking a few steps, was back to normal after a week or two.  I don't have any input on Radiation as it wasn't an option for me.  I'm now on chemo and I'm quite fine, I gotta do what I gotta do.  There are times I say this sucks, why do I have this but I realize its there, time to accept it, and do what I can to prolong my life.

Good luck and keep us posted! We can do this!

My husband's tumor was low in his rectum.  He had 28 days of raditaion and 5 fu chemo which was delivered through a pump that he wore for 5 days.  He could have done a pill form of chemo but because he was taking another medication for a trial study that he got into, he had to do the pump.  Radiation was every day M-F.  Side effects are accumulative.  They basically said that his side effects would primarily be from the radiation.  He is a firefighter but did continue to work for most of that time but on "light duty" which was 12 hours every third day.  He would just leave work, go to radition which took about 20 minutes and then go back.  By the end of the chemo/radiation he did take time off because he was feeling pretty bad. The goal of chemo/radiation prior to surgery is to shrink the tumor to have a better outcome from surgery.  He did end up with a permanent colostomy because his tumor was so low.  Prior to surgery he was stage 2 and after surgery it went to stage three.   If I remember right it was because prior to they could not see all of the tumor because it was close to bladder and prostate.  he had four tumor deposits and 1 of 31 lymph nodes were involved.   A lot of times you will see tumors graded like this: T (tumor) N (how many nodes involved) M (Metastisis).  I believe my husband was T3N1M0 after surgery. 

He is now having "mop up" chemo which is Oxaliplatin (sp?) and he has the 5 fu pump for two days but also gets a bolus of it when he goes in for his chemo infusion.  He just had his fourth treatment yesterday and the side effects are getting a bit worse each treatment.  He will have a total of 8 and gets them every two weeks.  He had his surgery April 26th and just went back to light duty again earlier this month.  If you don't have a colostomy your recovery time would be much less.  He is very tired a few days after chemo so he will take days off as needed.  So far this has not been as bad as radiation for him.

Hope this helps and was not information that you already knew.  I am certainly not an expert...too busy with kids/ work/ etc to do tons of research and sometimes I think that might be a good thing

Wishing you the best on this journey!

Prior to surgery my husband had a procedure similar to colonoscopy but it was a biopsy to stage the tumor.  At that time, they staged at a two, with no lymph nodes around it involved.  To my understanding, this staging is just preliminary and after surgery is the "offical" staging. 

I had the radiation and the chemo at the same time before the surgery and I found it to be very tiring. I couldn't have worked during it. I was half out of it and would lie in bed all day staring out the window at the clouds. I'm normally a very active person who doesn't sit still well so this was extreme for me. At one point I fell asleep during a long distance phone call and didn't have a long distance plan at the time.

I know that it's different for other people but that was my experience. Some people work during it. The chemo was the 5FU.

Jan 

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/staged.html

I'm quite comfortable with it that my decision as of now is not to have the reverse surgery.  I think I'll live with this thing forever.  I'm okay with that.

By the way, everyone responds to chemo differently.  I was a smoothsailer on my 3 5FUs infusion...I didn't get weak, worked the following day.  Nothing.. except the metallic taste in the mouth.  However, I shifted to Xeloda because I can't handle the hospital set-up.  When I was with the 5FU I had to stay in the hospital for 3 days (I don't have a port so I can't bring home the pump with me), so I just had the usual IV line.  I was so immobile there and I hate being in the hospital.  So I switched to the Xeloda.  The catch is, since I'm on xeloda now, the oxaliplatin's dose was increased.  It made me weak this time.  I was in bed for 3 days, although I didn't feel nauseous.  I'm a bit afraid for the upcoming oxali infusions but I'd rather be weak at home than be at the hospital for 3 days with nothing to do, nothing to look at, nothing to breathe but hospital air.  My onco asked me which I prefer.  I'd prefer the 5FU physically, but it was mentally draining.  So I think I'll just stick with Xeloda and spend my "weak" days at home where I can move freely and see my kids.

zx10guy said:

I have a friend who was

I have a friend who was border line rectal/colon due to the tumor location.  They decided in the end to treat it as rectal.  Her team of doctors decided not to do radiation.  There's been some focus on whether radiation in some rectal cancer patients is actually providing any benefit.  So she only had chemo prior to surgery and after.

Mine was rectal and they did chemo/radiation, surgery, chemo so things might have changed since my diagnosis in 2008, but I'm still cancer free however, I've been through two hip replacements and neuropathy because of chemo since then.  Hope they did change the regime.  Also my tumor was decreased from a nickle size tumor in the rectum to the size of a ball point pin tip after radiation so I'd pick radiation any day of the week.

Kim

I was stage 2 boardering on stage 3.  Radiation and chemo  for 5 weeks. then a 5week rest before surgery, 

.  Given an iliostome ,which was reversed  six weeks later.  Developed fistula that healed itself with 6 weeks.  Ned with only confirming colonoscopies in years following.  Now NED for 7 years.  Started at age 77, currently 85!!!