New colon/bowel diagnosis, very afraid.

Hi Croccy and welcome to the group!

Similarly, I was diagnosed in 2019, aged 42, and my 3 children were 12, 10, and 6 at the time. It was definitely more difficult for my eldest and in hindsight I wish I had been more open with her at the time. I had surgery and chemo then, then spread to the lungs in 2022, back for more chemo and radiotherapy etc., just check out my profile for more info.

The time between the diagnosis and the treatment plan is definitely the hardest, once you have a better idea of what you are dealing with and all the treatment options, things will fall into place. Just make sure you take all the help you can get with your little ones.

Any questions, feel free to message me.

Take care,

Cecile 

Hi Croccy and a warm welcome to the board from me too. Yes the ‘limbo’ time waiting for scans and meetings is very stressful but once you have a treatment plan in place then things will honestly feel a bit better. You could maybe mention to the oldest one that daddy is having some tests but personally I would wait until you have the full picture before going into too much detail. I was told at my first meeting that they were ‘treating me with a view to cure’ which was reassuring and something that I could tell my family - if you click on my name then you can see my profile - I was diagnosed in 2016 and I’m still ‘no evidence of disease’.

So I can hopefully clarify a couple of points? Size does not matter in this game! The severity of the situation depends on how far the tumour has grown into the bowel wall and whether it has gone through the bowel wall which means there is chance of spread to other organs. The scan will check this. Sometimes they can remove the tumour during the colonoscopy but if it’s attached to the bowel wall, then they won’t want to risk only getting part of it which may be what the doctor was muttering about.

I have also had a tickly cough for over 3 weeks now as have a lot of people I know! If, and it’s a very big if at this point, there was spread to the lungs then you would still have bowel cancer with spread to the lungs and not lung cancer - there is a difference. 

The good news is that bowel cancer is notoriously slow growing and also very treatable even if there was any spread. Ive attached a link to a booklet that I was given at my first meeting which may help and also a link to the bit about growing into the bowel wall which I’ve maybe not explained very well!

https://bowelcancerorguk.s3.amazonaws.com/Publications/YourPathway_BowelCancerUK.pdf

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/bowel-cancer/stages-types-and-grades/TNM-staging

Stay away from google - it can be scary - you can ask anything you like on here and we’ll be happy to help and support you through your treatment 

Take care

Karen x

Hi Croccy, welcome to the group.

You can read my full story by clicking on my name. I’m 43 with 4 children, they are 24, 21 and twins 16. I was diagnosed with colon cancer in November 23 and taken for emergency surgery, at this point they weren’t sure what stage it was as they didn’t know if it had gone through the bowel wall. Thankfully, they managed to remove the tumour with good margins. I’m currently receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. I’m yet to have a colonoscopy so I look forward to that!

The waiting for the results was definitely the worst part.

Takecare

Rachael x

Hi Croccy,

Welcome to the group and I’m so sorry to hear your news.  I’m 42 years old and was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in October and had a successful operation on the 15th December.  I have a 12 year old daughter and the hardest part was the ‘how do I tell her’.  The best advice I have received and probably the only way it kept me sane was to only deal with what is directly in front of me.  Your scan dates should come through quickly and then your case will be discussed by everyone in your care and you’ll be presented with a treatment plan.  As Karen says once you have a plan you honestly feel much better (though it might not seem like it now).  In my case we elected to wait until we had all the information before breaking the news to our daughter.  It’s obviously not nice but we thought the more information we could give her would help and I think it did.  I was also told is ok to say you don’t know if they ask a question you don’t have an answer to.

One day at a time, one step at a time and you will start to feel more in control of the situation.  Any questions at all ask away on here, everyone has been amazing since I joined the group.

Take care and best wishes to you and your family,

Craig 

Hi Croccy ,

I Was  in a similar position . 42 year old male with a 15 yr old and 11 ye old girls .

i was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June last year which had spread to the liver . As you can imagine my head was also in a spin . To be fair to my oncologist she was brilliant and positive from the start . I had 5 sessions of radiotherapy followed by 4 months of chemotherapy. After scans , it showed that the treatment had shrunk enough to be operated on . Just before Christmas I had bowel resection to remove the tumour and last Tuesday I had liver resection to remove 2 tumours in my liver . Both surgeries proved successful and all tumours removed . 

please stay strong, whilst the news is daunting , it can be treatable with 8 months of hard treatment that won’t be easy but worth it . 

Here for any questions you may have buddy 

jimmy