Average Recovery Time

I'm behind you by two weeks and am in my second week of Xeloda and radiation and I find that I've kind of adjusted to this stuff (not that it's fun). My family is also discussing doing various things like trips out in October and January and I'm wondering how hard or easy it will be to do this stuff.

I find that I can eat if I want to and actually have to be careful of not getting into mindless eating. The doctors that I've heard about all say that you shouldn't try to lose weight while going through this and that you shouldn't worry too much about gaining weight. I'm on another forum where there are discussions about weight gain so clearly there are people going through this with healthy appetites. I also think that some of the appetite issues, at least for me, are due to anxiety (which has been less of an issue lately for me).

On activity level: I find that I can be quite active on the meds and radiation but have probably 20% less energy which is okay. The thing that makes it harder to be active are: the extra time required for the Radiology appointment and the drinking of the water an hour before, spending more time on the toilet, and worry. It was already somewhat of a challenge to be active (in terms of time) between work, home maintenance and other family obligations but it's moreso an issue with daily radiology. Still, I try to squeeze something in every day and I feel better for it. Yesterday, it was a 1 mile run and pullups early in the morning and then some weights last night at home. This morning it was stretching early morning and crunches. I've scheduled 30 minutes of tennis for this afternoon. Much, much less than I did before cancer but my body and mind feel much better after doing them.

I know that you have a lot of restrictions on what you can do but I'd recommend doing whatever you can, at least a little (or a lot if you can manage it) every day.

I was looking to do the surgery about six weeks after or the second half of October so it seems to me that you want to delay it by two weeks. The Xeloda keeps working for some period of time after you stop taking it but I don't want to take the risk of the cancer starting to grow back again or spreading so I'd rather have the surgery done sooner rather than later. A grandchild is a great blessing these days. My kids aren't married and don't look like they will get there anytime soon. The kids of my sisters aren't married either (don't even think that they're dating).

I think that you're really the best judge of whether or not you can do it. At this point in time, I feel quite normal and could take a long weekend off. I don't know about getting on planes because of infection risk but I think that I'd just wear a mask. Our plans are for a week away between chemorad and surgery. I asked for a place that's secluded (mountains or beach), has good access to services and is quiet and relaxing within 90 minutes of home in case I need to see a doctor on short notice. So right now I feel like I could do a trip fairly easily. But I'm only two weeks in. I might change my mind in one, two, or three weeks.

I do appreciate your posts because our our near-timeline.

 I'm only on my second week and 3rd day of xeloda/radiation.  What I've noticed is that a big determining factor as to how I feel during the day is dictated by the amount of sleep I've gotten.  The last couple days my appetite has gone from practically nil to voracious. Im sleeping a lot more. The energy level is much higher now and even my bathroom trips and so forth seem to be improving.  Prior to I was lacking sleep, losing weight, and feeling generally like crap.  The amount of sleep I was getting averaged around 5-6 hours.  Pushing it to 8+ seems to make a huge difference.  Sometimes it's tough to sleep but melatonin seems to cure it.  Considering what we're doing to ourselves the quantity of sleep and it's affect is that much more amplified.  If you feel up to it, do what ever you want to do as long as it doesn't interfere with the end result. I'm of the mind the doctors know best. They've been doing this for countless years plus have the training and so forth so their advice is usually best followed.