Initial diagnosis of anal cancer

Welcome to our little club 

I’m sorry you've received this diagnosis and you find yourself on here. However, this is the right place to be. As I’m sure you’re aware, our cancer is rare so it’s unlikely you’ll bump into someone with the same cancer. There are lots of lovely people on this forum, all at different stages in their cancer journey, who have a wealth of knowledge and most importantly, who really understand what you are going through and facing.

Like you, my tumour was found my accident. Last March I was struggling with what I, and my GP, thought was a hemmorroid. I ended up in A&E in awful pain and was whisked into surgery to have an abscess removed. This is when my 4cm! tumour was discovered. So whilst my cancer was advanced, stage 3b, it was localised. I’m now 10 months post treatment and cancer free!!! YAY!! This cancer is curable and treatment is very effective, you will read lots of positive stories on here.

You’re in the awful limbo period where you’re waiting for more information, whilst trying to process the bombshell. Its a massive emotional roller coaster and I’d imagine you’re probably having lots of dark thoughts, which is totally okay and normal. When I was diagnosed I was very scared, scared for my children and scared about what was to come. I also had a perception about cancer that was totally wrong. Cancer is no longer viewed as lift threatening, more life changing. Lots of cancers can be cured and treatment now is very advanced. Lots of people survive cancer or live with it. 

Once you’ve had your scans, you will be invited to meet your oncologist. This meeting will be information overload but you will receive all the information about your cancer staging, treatment, side effects etc. The NHS is amazing you will be well looked after and once your medical team have all the details about your cancer things will move quickly. After this meeting you will feel better, secure and focused on the next steps.

Treatment is pretty much the same for everyone a combination of daily, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for 5.5 weeks. The radiotherapy is the main treatment, chemo is secondary. Treatment is short and sharp, the side effects are not particularly nice but are totally manageable.

In the meantime, I’d advise you connect with people who are at the same stage as you. thecannon79 and  have recently joined this site and like you, have just been diagnosed. It might be worth you making contact so you can support each other. When I was diagnosed I be-friended the lovely Nikki65 Although we were staged differently, we started treatment at the same time and texted each other every day throughout treatment. Of course, feel free to continue posting on here about any concerns or queries you have along the way as between us, we have a lot of experience and advise.

As well as support on here, I also had the help of a wonderful charity https://www.analcancerfoundation.org/?geoip=US they are based the U.S. with an office in London. They are the only anal cancer charity and offer a peer to peer support programme. I used this and was paired with a lovely anal cancer survivor who also supported me through my treatment and beyond. We are still in contact and hope to meet in person very soon.

If you’re the sort of person who feels better with information then start to educate yourself. Try not to google though! we all do it but in my experience it usually makes you feel confused and emotional. 

This Macmillan anal cancer guide is straight-forward and factual:

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/information-and-support/anal-cancer?_ga=2.184842410.203997976.1556779898-282368822.1551179266

in addition, the Anal Cancer Foundation website is also very useful and factual.

You are not alone, we are all here for you.

You can do this!

Sarah x

Hi

Sorry to hear about the cancer, you have the same as me, I am an 81 year old male, 12 years ago I had prostate cancer and radiotherapy cured me.

Now I have anal cancer and I have had my radiotherapy, but I could only have 15 doses not 32 because it would damage the

rest of my organs. 2 months down the line it has not shrunk in size and I honestly think I am going to die, sorry it sounds so abrupt.

Is your cancer very painful? I am on morphine, it helps but I cannot sit down for the pain. 1 more month and I will have a MRI scan.

Would love to hear from you wondering how you are coping.