I've been lurking around some of the threads for a few days, and thought it was only fair that I introduce myself and give a bit of my history.
I'm now 61 (and when the hell did that happen? 
) with stage 4 bowel cancer that has spread to my lungs. I had a colonoscopy in 2022 for a bit of bleeding and pain - very minor, but persistent. They found a tumour so removed it along with 22 lymph nodes - the post surgery report showed clear margins and nothing in the lymph nodes so I was given the all clear, no oncologist and no chemo needed. Except there were a couple of random tiny 'dots' in my lungs that showed from the PET scan so I needed a followup scan at 6 months. Just a precaution, no worries.
You can guess what happened - they did the scan and the little buggers had grown. There were 5 of them, spread out over both lungs so surgery wasn't an option. They tested the original tumour and I'm not a candidate for immunotherapy. I had a bit of an awful time around the diagnosis with the surgeon, respiratory physician and oncologist all assuming that someone else had told me I had incurable cancer. Anyway, there is a 60-70% chance that chemo will work to reduce my tumour size. The oncologist suggested a pretty wide range of life span, from one year to five.
I'm now coming up to two years from my original diagnosis, and although the tumours are still growing away, I have very few symptoms. I haven't had any treatment yet, as I absolutely decline to make myself sick for those odds when I'm not actually sick from the disease. I've agreed with my oncologist that either when I start to get properly symptomatic or when she thinks the 'volume of disease' is on the verge of being problematic, I'll try a course of chemo and see if it works.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying my 5 granddaughters, my 2 dogs, my lovely husband, and my mostly enjoyable work. No big bucket lists, just a kind of doubling down into the small things that bring joy.
Dying trigger question below - take care of yourself and consider whether you want to scroll on ...
I've noticed that there don't seem to be any threads on assisted dying or advanced care planning - is that a choice by the forum owners? I couldn't see anything specific in the guidelines. We have legislation here that I plan to take advantage of.
