Hi, I’m new to the forum. Brief intro….my husband was diagnosed last year with bowel cancer, a 2.5cm tumour very low down in the rectum.
We were told from the outset that the “gold standard treatment” was (radical) surgery, culminating in a permanent stoma & colostomy bag.
As he is a young 64 and fit and active he was keen to avoid the surgery, so accepted the treatment option of radiotherapy & chemotherapy.
The treatment went well and late last Summer we were told he had had “an almost complete response” and the tumour had shrunk to just under 1cm.
We had already learnt of Papillon treatment (contact radiotherapy) and he was offered this, to be carried out over three sessions at St Luke’s in Surrey. We had high hopes for this and indeed on the second session he was told that it was going in the right direction. He had a third session and then had to wait for things to settle down before having another sigmoidoscopy to see if it had been successful. Really disappointingly we were told that it hadn’t been.
So we are now back to the surgery, which he is having next month, and we are both absolutely dreading.
Could I hear from people who have been through the surgery about what to expect, recovery time etc etc?
Love this and so inspiring 
