Just been diagnosed with bowel cancer at 31 any advice would be appreciated

Hi 

Welcome to the forum ! 
https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/bowel-cancer/colon-cancer

I have linked in a leaflet which explains the steps the Drs go through in gathering your information for them to get the best treatment plan for you ! They will look at the biopsy to get information on the cell type and they like some scans to check it’s all contained nicely in the bowel !

This helps the surgeons too as they like to have them up in theatre ! All this goes to an MDT ( multi disciplinary meeting ) where the specialists get their heads together and confirm the best treatment pathway for you !

Everyone here I think will agree this part is hard with a fair bit of waiting for the right information! However once it is gathered together and dates are put in diaries for treatment to start it becomes much more structured and gives some direction to take it forward !

Bowel cancer caught early has many treatment options so please be reassured by that ! Kareno62 always advises that you be very careful not to Google random sites that might send your anxiety soaring. Stay to NHS and specialist sites for your information!

In terms of size , sometimes bowel tumours can be a bit bulky and they have various ways to downsize that prior to surgery if required. It definitely does not mean because it’s big it has spread or more aggressive. There is not always a correlation to size and spread so I hope that helps reassure you !

Take care ,

Court 

Hi, , don't be put off by the size. My rectal tumour, just a bit lower than yours was 7cm, and I went straight to surgery. Some do chemo before, I didn't. Mine was T3 so it was in the wall but not quite through. So you might not be looking at spread. You won't know at the moment, so try not to panic! This is the hardest part, waiting for information . Take care.

Thankyou I will have a look through. My heads all over the place at the moment and I'm just scared. 

Thank you. I just can't wrap my head around this. The waiting is soo hard. 

Yes it is. We have all been there. Find your space and try and chill, go for a walk or whatever. Just don't panic, it is treatable.

My husband found out 4 weeks ago he had a 3cm tumour in the sigmoid. He had emergency surgery as his colon was rupturing. They removed two sections of bowel and he has a temporary stoma to allow the bowel to heal. He will have chemo to mop up as the results of his biopsy showed cancer cells. He’s stage 2 cancer but stage 3 tumour size - the grading is confusing! It’s scary, we are scared, but can’t even imagine if it wasn’t caught. Yours has been! Yes it’s a big tumour and it’s so scary but they have it now and this is a common form of tumour from what I read and am told. Treatments are advanced and known and well discussed here. I would expect you’d also have chemo to shrink the tumour or after to mop up. Keep in mind that they have it. This is so important because as scary as today is, if you were not diagnosed it could have been so much worse, but you have been. Have faith - Everything you will go through, good and bad, is to stop more bad, to ensure you have the best recovery for you and your family. If you need to chat I am here, just send a PM if you want to vent. I get it!! I really do. It’s such scary news but there are so many good people here who can help and we will xxx