RMGill Reply

I know I'm a little late in responding but I've taken what I like to term a small cancer hiatus as I think both patients and caregivers, I'm the later, need to do this every once in a while....living, breathing, eating and drinking cancer 24/7 is, to me, no life.

That being said, I concur with several other responses you have already received. Get thee to a new oncologist and as soon as possible. My husband, stage III, had a pretty good one when we first started out...he left the practice and the one that took his place was so, so....not really a go getter though. Four months into treatment, and yes, Bert opted for chemo, we switched. In the beginning, Bert tolerated the treatments very well, but as time went on, he was seriously ill with colon infections due to constant diarrhea for which all the meds in the world didn't seem to help. Only solution with old onc was decrease the dose and finally, not give him any at all.

When we switched, his new oncologist not only put him right back on chemo but also added oxaliplatin, usually just given to stage iv's, listened real carefully to Bert's chemo history, and perscribed a totally different way of administering the chemo...not new to most folks, but new to us....that being the awful 5FU via infusion pump over a period of 46 hours. To date, Bert has continued on an additional four months with two more months planned since he is even taking it better than the onc anticipated. For Bert, side effects have been minimal...fatigue being the biggest culprit but it seems to ease up a bit within two to three days after treatment. His onc is encouraging...doesn't believe in statistics, and truly fights the fight with all of his patients.

You have a lot to life for. Bert is now 51 and God willing, will be with me for many, many more years. He goes to work daily and enjoys his life. Although not stage iv, four nodes being involved places him at high risk for recurrence but he doesn't dwell on that and what his odds are. Like so many others, he too believes somebody has to make that 5 - 10%, which when you look at the total number of colon cancers, that's a lot of people!

Hang in there and you've come to a great board.

Monika, caregiver to Bert diagnosed stage III with 4 lymph nodes involved 7/03 On 5fu/leucavorin through 12/03...switched oncologists and; put on 5fu/leucavorin/oxaliplatin as considered high risk. To date, still on chemo...all scans continue to remain clean...including latest colonoscopy (4/04)