Hi, I am new to the forum so am hoping someone can help. My mum has been informed she has bowel cancer but has never had a colonoscopy or biopsy. They have staged it as T3 N1 M0. The Colorectal team have been mainly unhelpful saying she is frail and they won't operate or offer any treatments other than management of symptoms. They also want to put her on a palliative pathway and want a DNAR in place. We have asked for a second opinion and they have also said they don't support this.
My question is, can bowel cancer be diagnosed and staged through a CT scan alone? Is this something we should just accept and let mum go? My mum is keen to get answers about what is creating issues but she doesn't have the typical bowel cancer symptoms either. Its all been very distressing and any ideas on next steps would be helpful.
Hi Evalia and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I’m sorry to read that your mum has recently been diagnosed with bowel cancer and that the hospital have said only palliative treatment is possible.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join the bowel cancer group, which is a great place to ask your questions, share experiences and get support.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your mum's diagnosis and test results into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
