Newly diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer — seeking shared experiences and hope

Just to add, my two most recent blood test results came back completely normal — including liver and kidney function.

cg1980 welcome to the forum. Where you are right now can be a very scary place. From being healthy to now being told a whole multitude of things and new words that make sense but don’t at the same time. And just when you think you understand wham your told something else.

i think a lot on here have been there or are there. My hope for you is once you have a treatment plan and you’re clear on what is happening and why , then hopefully you move to a different place. 

there are lots of nice people on hear who will share their experiences if you want or need it ..it was my husband with cancer not me..he is still here and with NED his story is in my profile.  Lots of twists and turns.  We managed by doing just one day at a time and trust me that was enough to deal with.if you have questions share on here.

i wish you well as you navigate your way through this. But you need not be alone .

Love hope and peace be with you process

Thank you so much for your kind words.I've read your husband's journey with cancer in your profile, and it truly moved me deeply. His story of resilience and achieving NED is incredibly inspiring.

I'm from China and have been living in the UK for over a decade. My wife is wonderful to me, and I feel very fortunate and love her dearly. I always try to be optimistic in front of her because I don't want her to worry about me. However, I know she worries almost every day, as I often see her red eyes in the mornings.

I shared your and your husband's experience with her, and she asked me to express her deep respect for you and her best wishes for your husband's continued recovery.

I will certainly keep updating my situation here. I hope that by sharing my journey, I can offer some help or comfort to anyone who might need it.

Hi Cg1980 

Welcome to the forum and hope we can be of help to you going forward .

Sounds as though you are in good shape going into treatment .

Given you have only one liver met I am not quite sure what the practice is in terms of the order of treatment but they do generally like to do systemic chemo first to stabilise the visible disease but also gives them the chance to knock back any microdisease .

The liver is such a large organ and regenerates . My mum had five liver mets initally . You can click on my bio to read how her team treated her liver disease but I can confirm she lived 15 years with stage 4 diagnosis. Her liver remained clear after extensive surgery and she had no further issues with it .

You have considerable less disease and less tumour burden .

They scan regularly and whilst it’s a pain it did catch disease early and able to nip anything in the Bud .

You have strong motivation to help you on the difficult days .

Have a look at Star74  profile too .

Surgery is a treatment too but so is radio frequency ablation for some people . We have even had someone recently using a targeted radiotherapy in a way I have not heard of before. Things are pushing forward so it’s not a situation without hope .

Take care ,

Court 

Thank you so much for sharing your mum's incredibly inspiring journey. It gives me a lot of hope to know that such long-term survival is possible, especially given my single, smaller liver metastasis.

I’ll definitely take a look at Star74's profile as well. It's encouraging to hear about the advancements in treatments.

Thank you again for your kind words and for taking the time to share such valuable insights. It means a lot.

Hi Cg1980, I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis but I would urge you to be encouraged by the fact of your negative lymph nodes. The treatment although unpleasant is highly effective. Best of luck.

Thank you Dozer to reply. Waiting the the worst that makes me overthink. Liver specialists team will review all my mri scans and let me know the results this Friday. Fingers crossed.

Hi Cg1980

I was also recently diagnosed with a 15mm liver met in segment 7 to my shock in June. I discussed this new diagnosis with my Oncologist and a surgeon of the options I had and the Liver Surgeon told me that ablation would be challenging to best not to operate as i will need further Chemo.

So it was decided I have Radiotherapy on a machine called MR linac with genesiscare which has been shown to produce some good results.  I had my 3rd session today and have 2 more to go. Results are shown after another CT scan in 10 weeks time.

Just a thought for an option if you have it.

Best of luck 

Thank you to let me know your situation and the MR linac, I will have an appointment with my oncologist next week to discuss about my treatment and mention if it’s available to have MR linac for me in Bristol. Thank you so much and best wishes!

Hi Cg1980 

Im sorry about your diagnosis, it really does come as a shock and takes a while to process so be kind to yourself.  I still havent accepted Im in this mess and Im nearly 5 years in!!   I will say though that this stage is most definately the worst and once you have a plan you will feel better and more in control.

I was diagnosed with extensive spread to the liver, out of the blue and my boys were 3 and 6 at the time. Ive since had over 60 cycles of chemo, radiotherapy and 3 huge operations.  I hasnt always been a straightforward path, plenty of curve balls along the way but Im still here, keeping as active, healthy and positive as i can!

They may want to get you onto chemo first, in which case many on here have lots of advice about the side effects when you know which regime you will be given.  Although none are particularly pleasant, it can work wonders and will hopefully get everything under control.

Do let us know what the plan is.  Just try to get through this period as best you can and you'll feel better when you start treatment and feel like youre doing something.

All the best, Michelle