Anal Cancer newbie

Mine was much the same - classified as T3N1 with local nodes affected. I had 28 days of weekday radiation plus chemo tablets every weekday (capecitabine) and one short chemo infusion of mitomycin on the first day of treatment. I finished treatment nearly 4 weeks ago and have bounced back pretty quickly. Waiting for scans at end of Jan to see if it’s worked. 

lots of really useful hints and tips on here for getting through treatment so have a dig around when you have your plan in place and don’t hesitate to ask - no question is stupid and we are either going through or have gone through it ourselves. 

Sarah x

Thank you for replying….always nice to “meet” people in the same boat, however much we wished we weren’t in the boat! I hope the treatment weeks weren’t too horrible for you and you should be feeling much better for Xmas. I’m meant to be going to Australia next week to see my daughter but that may/may not happen depending on time scales. I’m hoping they will have everything they need from me to formulate a plan of action whilst I’m away so that when I get back I’m ready to rock and roll!

Hi MummaBearb8d2d7 ,

Welcome to our little corner of the MacMillan Online Community although I’m sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis. 

Being at the point you are now is the worst but hopefully once you have a definite staging, a treatment plan in place & a start date you’ll begin to feel a little more in control. 

I'm obviously not medically trained but the likelihood is that you’ll get the gold standard treatment for your diagnosis which is much as you’ve described in your post. The chemo side of the treatment can vary from country to country, health authority to health authority & even hospital to hospital. Some as you describe have intravenous chemo weeks 1 & 5 of treatment & others like me have a short infusion of chemo day 1 of treatment then oral capecitabine each day of radiotherapy (Monday to Friday weekends off all treatment) thereafter. 

Fingers crossed your consultant will be able to give you a firm plan moving forward on Monday. 

As Sarah has already said please just ask if you’ve any questions you think we may be able to help you with. We’re here to support you however we can. 

Wishing you the best of luck with your scan on Friday & appointment on Monday, please let us know how it goes. 

Nicola 

Hi MummaBearb8d2d7 

Welcome to the club. I was T2 N1, i had the standard chemo and radiotherapy, 28 sessions radiotherapy and 5 days of chemo 24/7 via a pump attached to me at the start and another five days at the end ( most people on here seem to have oral chemo though ) Im just over a year post and cancer free as of my 9 month checks. 

You sound positive which is a good thing, hopefully you will get a start date soon, treatment wasnt a walk in the park but not as bad as i expected. Like you say once you have a plan and dates in place you will feel more in control. 

Everyone here will have your back, ask questions, vent whatever you need. Sending hugs. Xx

Hi 

I’ve T3N1 , small bit in lymph nodes & 2 little bits by my groin . Going tomorrow to have CT scan & get marked up for radiotherapy, Start chemo & radiotherapy on Dec 15th for 28 days . You do feel better once you have a plan & the start date , it’s feels abit too real now though . Good luck to you all

Good luck for tomorrow! You’re right, it’s the waiting days that are awful!!

Hi MummaBear,

I was T3N1 at diagnosis, and had five weeks radiotherapy and chemo capecitabine as tablets, with one infusion of mitomycin right at the start. 
As has already been said here, you will feel much more in control once you have a definite date and treatment plan, and it sounds like that's all under way.
This chemoradiation can be quite harsh on your body, but it is a really good treatment and has excellent results.

I hope you hear soon, 

xx

Good luck to you too . Take care xx️️