Feeling a bit in limbo again! My husband was diagnosed with stage 3 Rectal cancer last August and had gone through neoadjuvent radio and chemotherapy therapy, before having an anterior resection 4 weeks ago. I’m glad to say that he’s recovering well and managing his illeostomy brilliantly, but we are a bit confused. The CR nurses told us they would come and discuss the next steps following surgery before he left hospital but they didn’t, and we have had no contact from them at all. His wonderful stoma nurses have said that the CR nurses or consultant should be contacting him regarding his ‘final histology’ and forward plan. Anyone know what this all means?
Hi Ea1.
I guess the "final histology" will be the results from the pathology report on the tumour material taken out during your husband's surgery 4 weeks ago.
This is often available within 2 weeks of surgery, but MDT (multi disciplinary team) meetings often only happen once a week so if a bank holiday or strike impacts, then 3-4 weeks can easily be timeline.
"Forward plan" may well be what most call treatment plan. This, as example only, could be aduvent chemo if they want to prevent reoccurance or spread risk. They will only start to consider possible next step treatment plans once histology report is in.
Hi
I had a follow up post op with my surgeon who told me exactly how the op went and results.
Though my CR nurse phoned me with the results asap as I didn’t need more treatment just monitoring
I think you could phone your nurses to check that you’ve not slipped through the net
Great to hear he’s coping well with the stoma. It doesn’t take long to get used to sorting
Best wishes
Ann
Thanks, glad all is going well for you.
Unfortunately it seems that his CR nurses are not that great at communicating, as he has rang and left messages and emailed but to no avail 
Thanks for the reply, everything you have said makes sense, but feel a little let down by the hospital as surely this all should have been explained to us even before the surgery.
I think I had in my mind that he may need further treatment, but he thinks surgery was the end point, as no one has ever indicated or suggested that it wouldn’t be. He has tried contacting the CR nurses but they never seem be available or reply to answer phone. We will keep trying, I just hope that there aren’t too many other people out there feeling a bit abandoned like
we are
My experience of the colorectal nursing team wasn't great. In my hospital they appeared over stretched, under resourced and demotivated - which resulted in uneven, often absent, support.
I'd suggest you contact the consultant's secretary and get an appointment or call arranged to discuss everything and clear up and uncertainty. 15mins with a knowledgable person can be a game changer and remove guess work.
And hopefully this forum can also help reduce your abandoned feeling 
Sorry you both had a bad experience and after care.
My bowel care was amazing and cohesive my lung was less so.
I felt quite frightened in critical care. I was confused and didn’t have a clue what was going on!
I phoned my lung cancer nurses and told them to phone me with my results as my follow up was with a doctor I hadn’t met in a different hospital weeks away!
My results were good and the consultation was really informative and put my mind at rest in fact it made perfect sense as to why my op took twice as long and I needed care I just wish I’d had that info before
Something I would take forward phone whoever you need to find out the results and if there any further treatment
Both my cancers were primary so just monitoring for me
Ill be wishing you well keep us updated
Ann
