Help me help my wife

Hello!!! Welcome!!! You have come to the right place!! The people here are GREAT!!!!! I am a caregiver for my husband Bob who was diag. in Sept 2003. They gave him 6 months and he is still with me today. I can't say that it has been easy but fighting cancer is hard work!!! Both physically and mentally!!! What I can tell you is that everyone is different and thanks to his Dr. being positive and not giving up on him this has kept Bob fighting!!!

When he was first diag. we thought our world fell apart to put it mildly!!!! Knowledge is power and I read alot and asked alot of question that I demanded answers to.

Just try and take on day at a time and notlook at the whole picture at once. That is how I have been coping. Have a positive attitude even though I know for a fact that it is very difficult at times!!!!

There are so many people here that have so much info to share and love doing it. So don't be afraid to post as often as you need to.

I don't know if I have helped or not. What I do know is that if it wasn't for the people here I wouldn't of made it through all of this. I just try to keep Bob's stress level down and tell him not to worry about everything else as it is his job to get better.

Hang in there!!!! Take care of yourself so that you can care for your wife and family!!!!

Best Wishes and Prayers coming your way!!!!

Sue

Hello and welcome to this group. Wish it was under better circumstances, but you will find a LOT of support here.

I am 42 years old with 3 boys (5,9,& 10) and a wonderful supportive wife. I was diagnosed stage 4 when I had surgery to remove the tumor in February of this year. I had an on duty oncologist visit me when I was just out of surgery who gave me 1 1/2 to two years with no chance of 5 year survival (I had mets to the liver). I went to a different oncologist, when through 7 months of chemo and radio frequancy ablation last month. I am now in remission. Both my oncologist and surgical oncologistsay there is a 50-50 chance of recurrence. My surical onc. says that this can be a "manageable" disease over the long run (30-40 years) as long as the recurrences are in a place he can get to.

I don't know how the oncologist can tell you that this will likely be the cause of death. He doesn't know how she will respond to chemo or if the recurrence will be in a place they can get to.

Don't give up hope. There are so many new treatments available and so many more trials under way.

Keep us posted. Mike

Hi
Please excuse my userid. but angel is my dog and I impulsively used it.
I was diagnosed with stage !V colon cancer in January 2003 after a routine colonoscopy. It had spread to my lungs, In March I started chemotherapy (camptosar, 5 Fu and leucovoryn. By October 03 the lung nodules had shrunken ( too many to have surgery to remove} and I stopped chemo. Well I am still stable with no growth so there is hope. They might put your wife on Avastin. It is a newer antibody drug that was just approved over a year ago.
My oncologist never talked statistics, it seems useless as we are each dealing with this awful illness individually. Good luck with everything. Don't give up hope. I am living proof that stage 1V can be a chronic disease . Let us know how everything is going.

Angel

Hello,

I am Rita, age 51, diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in May of 2003. Had immediate surgery and it had spread to ovaries and lymph nodes. I was given a temporary colostomy. Went thru chemo, actually all went well. Main side effect was fatigue. Didn't loose my hair nor did I get sick at all. I was in remission for about 6 months and had tests to get ready to reverse the colostomy and found the cancer had returned. I'm now going through chemo again, seems to be too many tumors to have surgery and they added avistin to the regiment. I just had some blood work done and the chemo seems to be working. That's my condensed story.

Please, know that you and your wife are in my prayers, and that you did the right thing in coming here. Most here are very helpful and most importantly, supportive. Take care

Rita

Hello JK,

Welcome to the boards and please encourage your wife to come on here too if she'd like to hang with us. We're a wide a varied group of folks with one thing in common: We are surviving Cancer.

I know you asked for Stage 4 survivors but I thought I'd jump in here too anyway.

I was dx'ed three years ago with Stage 3 lymph pos zero mets colon cancer.

I did not do the chemo. I chose to heal the cancer using Eastern Medicine and much prayer. So far so good.

There are fabulous books and websites out there to help you navigate through the cancer questions and chemo questions.

www.cancerdecisions.com

www.curezone.com

www.drday.com

www.healthquarters.org

Books:

A Cancer Battle Plan by Anne Frahm
When Hope Never Dies by Marlene McKenna
Questioning Chemo by Dr. Ralph Moss
The Makers Diet by Dr. Jordan Rubin
Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Dr. Patrick Quiilin

These last two are especially great--Dr. Rubin cured an intestinal disease that he had and lived to tell.

The Quillin book is so very helpful to steer you through supplements and vitamins that are known cancer fighters.

I was 39 when dx'ed and have 5 kids. My youngest at the time was 20 months old. You better believe I was not ready to check out.

What I tell everyone who comes on here for the first time is:

80% of colon cancers are diet related so the diet is a good place to start when you seek healing. No matter if you choose chemo or not our diets need to be adjusted to include healing foods that fight cancer....such as fresh veggie juices and our diets need to kick out cancer enhancers such as refined SUGARS and processed foods. Cancer feeds on sugar and why put junk food in your system when it needs optimum nutrition for fighting this scourge.

Anyway, I am sorry your wife and your family is having to go through this. It is no fun I know. I have been on both sides (my sister died of this disease 12 years ago at 33).

You have come to a good place. Glad you have joined us sorry you are here.

peace, emily the resident nutrition nag :-)

Dear JKendall,
No matter what, don't quit! Don't buy what the doctor is telling you as gospel truth!

Go to page 135 on this discussion board and look at the replies to gadney, especially the reply from England 44. You will see what all of us are saying. You can beat a 70% chance. Lot's of people writing and reading these messages have done it.

Keep coming back. You will find this site is irresistable because of the hope, help and heart that is displayed by all the semi colons.