Just found out rectal cancer-Joe

Welcome
Hi Joe--

I want to welcome you but I'm also sorry that your circumstances have brought you here. I hope you find the support you are looking for on this forum. I'm glad your CT scan shows no spread to other organs. Please keep us posted on your upcoming appts. and treatment. Take care and may God bless.

I have an ostomy!
Hi Joe, I have an ostomy put in last year and I got used to it. Oh believe me it took a while. Stay in touch please. I'll walk you through it. By 1 year you will not worry about bad smells, bad noises, what people will think, whether anyone will love you, etc. I swear it!

Meanwhile: do you have adenocarcinoma of the rectum or squamous cell cancer of the anus? regardless of exact location,. if it is adeno, you treatm,ent will be a different than anal cancer folks get.

Anyway, I had it all with anal cancer and reached a full remission thanks to my blessed ostomy.

Get that cancer out of your body as fast as possible.

PLEASE write back and tell me:
type of cancer
have you been scanner for linger and lung problems?
where you are, generally speaking.

Thanks, a lucky optimist!

Winnie

welcome Joe
Hey guy, you have come to the right place for help and support. Most eveyone in here can help with what to expect and how to deal with it. On nights I panic and cant sleep I read the stories of others and I regain some strength. I have anal cancer and had the surgery to remove the mass end of Jan. Mid March I started chemo and rad, Unfortuatly I had a very bad reaction to chemo and had to stop that part, but am still doing the rad. It is scary and bizzare treatment but folks in here are willing to help if we can. My advice is to talk frankly with the Doctors and make them control any pain you may be having you do not need to suffer phyical pain. Any queations please ask. Steve

polyp
I was diagnosed Feb 1, 2007. My resection was on feb 19, 2007. My polyp was low with 1 lymph node testing positive. I had a temporary ileostomy for 10 months. During that time I went thru chemo and radiation. Went thru treatment very easy. I had a mediport which enabled chemo to be 24/7. My reversal was Dec 21,2007. I am cancer free and doing good. I have side effects from radiation which made my reversal difficult. I deal with those bathroom issues day to day. I did not seek a second opinion, you may want to. Have them explain about all the side effects you may or may not experience, especially radiation. I do know that my surgeon is a very good one from some of the comments I've read. Is it possible if you have surgery to do it laproscopally? We're all here for help and support for you.

lizdeli said:

Joe
Hi Joe
I just wanted to stress that it's important to determine rectal from anal cancer. I was originally diagonsed with rectal but when I went to MD Anderson they confirmed anal. The treatments are different. Be sure to ask your doctor's how certain they are that it is rectal AND how many cases of anal cancer have they seen. The reason I say this is because the first doctor I met with had only seen 2 cases in 12 years. I went to MD Anderson and they see that in a week. So ask and if you don't sense their confidence or even if you do, second opinions can be reassuring and sometimes life saving.

I wish you well and I'm glad you found this forum.
Liz

I too wish you well. Liz was
I too wish you well. Liz was describing the course of her treatment at MDA recently, and I must say the care she got seemed very well coordinated. I also like the way they use Cisplatin rather than Mito. At least one forum member on a small Rare Cancer group elsewhere (ask me about it later) had a bad cardiac reaction to mito and spent nights in the hospital because of it. Also, I am in a very good full remission from Stage 4 anal SCC with mets to the liver, no nodes, and I had Carboplatin and Taxol. Carbo is a platinum drug, as is Cisplatin, so that just makes me happy to hear! During my Carbo/Taxol period, I also got Xeloda, the oral form of 5-FU. The three drug combo made the mets go away by June 208 and as of March 2010, they are still gone. I wish everyone got Taxol and frankly do not know why they don't.

W

JR6020 said:

Thanks
Thanks for replying. The surgeon said most likely I would, actually said I would but I can hope, and was going to do chemo/radiation to shrink tumor and then surgury 4-6 wks later. I will try other board as well. Hope you're ok. Very strange being on this sight, like a bad dream I havn't woke up from yet. Trying very hard to keep positive outlook. Thanks again

Colorectal Board Member
Hi Joe

I'm from the Colorectal board, but I stop in here occasionally to see if I can offer anything to the folks on this board.

I was reading your treatment plan and it sounds similar to what I went through. We did 5fu pump on weeks #1 and #5...we did radiation the entire 5 weeks (25 cycles).

The goal was to shrink the tumor to allow a rectal resection and spare myself a colostomy. There were only millimeters separating me from this procedure, so I went ahead with it to try and save myself from that.

We did wait about 6-7 weeks after the last radiation treatment to allow some healing before surgery. The timetable is crucial to the outcome as after about 8-weeks, scar tissue begins to build up and this would have nixed the resection and made it not doable.

The treatments and surgery were successful, but my colon never got a day off to rest and heal, so it took me 2-3 years of recovery before things began to settle down. By year 4-5, it became much better, but it was a hard way to go.

Hopefully, the radiation treatments could shrink the tumor enough to allow a resection as well and avoid a colostomy - every millimeter helps. Of course, the surgeon would be better able to tell you about what they thought the prognosis would be.

I know it's a scary time for you right now! The unknown always is. I had gone 5+ years battling cancer before I ever found the CSN board, and now I spend my time trying to help others like yourself with what I've learned. I wish I had some of the answers that I read here.

Just one step at a time - corny sounding as it is, it's true - just one day and let the calendar just roll on - time, sometimes alot of time will make things better and you will heal and become the "new normal" that you will be for the rest of your life.

I was 43 when I was diagnosed...I'm about to be 49 now and I was given a death sentence by the doctors, but surpised them all by being here - you can walk down the same road with me. Hang in there, but do get started.

Take care
Craig

JR6020 said:

Thanks
Thanks for replying. The surgeon said most likely I would, actually said I would but I can hope, and was going to do chemo/radiation to shrink tumor and then surgury 4-6 wks later. I will try other board as well. Hope you're ok. Very strange being on this sight, like a bad dream I havn't woke up from yet. Trying very hard to keep positive outlook. Thanks again

Colostomy
I also had or have (depending on your definition of cured) rectal cancer. I was diagnosed in January of last year while I was in Georgia (I live in Boston) my first doctors opinion was I was going to loose my prostate and rectum and be on a colostomy bag for the rest of my life. Needless to say I was Bullsh@t about it. So I got another opinion. I am now 5 months past my final treatment. I had 28 radiation treatments and 2 round of chemo and a colorectal resection. I had a colostomy bag for 9 weeks. I have been back to work full time since I recovered from surgery. There is always hope and there is always another opinion available. My doctor told me she couldn't tell if it was going to be permanent until after surgery. So hope for the best. If this is your first surgeon and that is what he is telling you, I would find another Doctor. There are to many factors in this kind of cancer for a doctor to make that kind of decision before you have even finished treatment. Good luck and when you needs words of encouragement come back and see us AND DON"T EVER LOOSE HOPE!!!!