Hi ,
Sorry I’ve just seen your post. I was diagnosed with SCC anal cancer February 2018 & went through chemoradiotherapy last May/June & am now 14/15 months in remission. If you click on my name you can read my story a bit more in depth on my profile.
As Deb has described the standard treatment & it’s delivery is usually radiotherapy & chemotherapy combined for 5.5 weeks, Monday to Friday only with weekends off all treatments. Delivery of the chemotherapy can vary from hospital to hospital but I think generally, as mine was, it’s given as an infusion day 1, the actual infusion is delivered through a cannula by a nurse with a syringe & takes a couple of minutes just prior to the first radiotherapy session then you’ll take chemo tablets twice a day each day of your radiotherapy. The radiotherapy is delivered with you lying on a bed, similar to an X-ray machine & takes 5-10 minutes for a session to be completed.
I totally understand how overwhelming all of this is, we’ve all been there & felt the way you’re feeling so we can all sympathise, you’ll find people at all different stages of their journey here, some just diagnosed like yourself, some going through their treatment, some like me that are in remission & even some lovely people that still pop back on here that have been through their 5 years remission, declared cured & discharged.
Please if you have any questions just ask, it really doesn’t matter what it is, however big or small, however personal it may seem it won’t be the first time it’s been asked & someone on here will be able to give some advice or at the very least point you in the direction to get the answers you need.
Where you are right now it’s a bit of a whirlwind, diagnosis, scans, treatment planning, all very overwhelming, but things will settle down. I was terrified before my treatment began, I so didn’t want to go through all of that! but as I tell everyone once I’d got that first day over with I began to relax & the weeks I was in treatment passed really quickly. You’ll hear the same thing from many people on here.
I’ll just add one more thing for now, this treatment, although daunting, has really good curative rates & is successful for many, many people including myself, so keep that in the forefront of your mind.
Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you have.
Nicola
Hi ,
You’re in a very similar situation to myself, I’m 54 with 2 daughters & also widowed. So although family have supported me as much as possible through all of this my parents, sister & extended family live 200 miles away so for a large part of this journey it has been just me & my girls.
One bit of advice I would give is please pay little attention to the horror stories. I spoke separately to my specialist nurse & oncologist about the horrors I’d heard about this treatment & they both said that what I was reading was the worst of the very worst.
I didn’t feel ill as such at all throughout treatment, yes there’s no getting away from the fact that you do get sore back & front ‘down there’ but you’ll be supplied with plenty of pain relief & creams to help deal with that, the biggest thing for me was the fatigue, although a nana nap during the day & early nights sorted that out. Everyone reacts slightly different to the treatment but this was my experience, I hope some other people will see your post & be along soon to share their experiences & offer you a bit of reassurance.
Nicola
