My husband was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June, had 50% of his bowel removed, operation wasn’t successful and he now has a stoma, he is going through chemo but is struggling with the side effects and I’m not coping well at all, please help
Hi Mazzab64 and welcome to our group.
I’m sorry to read that things are difficult for yourself and your husband right now, and hope we’ll be able to help support you (and your husband if he’d like to join us) within our groups in the community.
Would you be able to give us a little bit more information so that we can see how we might best be able to help? What kind of stoma does your husband have now, and is it permanent or will there be an opportunity in the future to have it reversed? What type of chemo is he having and what kind of side effects does he struggle with?
There are a number of groups which you could join which will widen the number of members who will read your posts, and you will be able to connect with different people who have been through the same things so I’m going to suggest some of our groups which you might be interested in where you can also join and post. You just need to click on these links I’ve made here-
Carers Only Forum (if you are his carer)
In the stoma group here, we have lots of members who can offer practical advice from their own experiences of living with stomas so is there anything specific he is struggling with around managing his stoma? Not all of us who have stomas have had bowel cancer, but there is a lot of help in the bowel cancer forum from those undergoing chemo for this cancer.
It is very difficult for you to watch your husband struggle, so I hope you’ll find it helpful to be with us in the community. You sound as if you also need some support for yourself which is really important.
I hope you can keep chatting with us and hopefully we can help you both. You can also call the Macmillan Support Line and the number is in my signature below-you will find caring people there who can also offer advice and support to you both.
Now that you’ve reached out I hope you won’t feel so alone with things and you are among people who understand-both patients with cancer and those who are carers so please keep posting and we’ll do our best to help.
Take care of yourselves.
Sarah xx
