Rectal cancer surgery.

 Hugo8 Hi Ralph. In a word yes! Your experience so far sounds very like mine - the chemoradiotherapy stopped the passing of blood and my stools went back to normal - I almost forgot I was ill waiting for the follow up scans! If you have had a complete response ie. no sign of the tumour on the scans then you may be offered the ‘watch and wait’ option and avoid surgery but the choice would be yours. 

Congrats on getting through the chemoradio - I managed to sneak a week away in Cyprus before my surgery - 1st box ticked off and everything crossed for good results from the scans - please keep us posted?

Take care

Karen x

Thanks Karen, even if it came back as complete response I would still like to have the surgery.

Can you tell me what was your results from scans and was your surgery necessary even though you felt amazing. Also did you have to get a stoma and bag?

Sorry for all these questions but I need to get my head around what I'm facing.

Many thanks, Ralph.

Hi Ralph. Happy to answer any questions so ask away. My colorectal nurse told me that I’d had a ‘reasonable response’ to the chemoradiotherapy so would still need surgery - I later found out that the tumour had shrunk from 4cm to 1cm which I thought was pretty good but obviously still needed removing. 
I had a temporary stoma (Ileostomy) which I coped well with - there’s a separate board on here for stomas with loads of advice and tips - and it was reversed after my post op chemo had finished. If you click on my name you can see my treatment background but ignore the setbacks that I had - they’re not usual!

Take care

Karen x

Thanks Karen,

I seem to be similar to you. I don't know how much my tumor shrank but I'm sure some little bit will still be there. I'm completely ready in my head for surgery and stomas so that doesn't bother me. 

I've already joined the stoma group so I'm learning a lot from them. 

Can you please let me know what post op Chemo you had so I can ready myself for that should I have to go down that road too!

Thanks for your support...I'm learning more as I inch towards my surgery!!

Ralph 

Hi Ralph

I had 17 lymph nodes removed and 2 tested positive for cancer (which they had suspected beforehand) so although they had been removed they still recommended a course of chemo. I had oxaliplatin and capecitabine which is known as Capox or xelox 

Thanks so much Karen....the information you gave me is amazing, just what I needed.