On Jan 21st I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer which is touch my dudenum..I am seeing an oncologist on 28th to discuss chemo once I have had chemo I will need surgery..I am really scared by all this as it's fear of the unknown to me is anybody else going through this
Most people on this board (although some are family of others) have been through this in similar forms. Mine was in the left hand wall of my bowel and had gone through the bowel wall so I had a left hemi-colectomy with open surgery rather than keyhole.
I went through this experience the other way around. i had the surgery first and then the chemo.
The fear of the chemo and surgery is, in my experience, much worse than the reality. The chemo isn't very nice, but try to think of it as a super hero or a person that's playing for team Chelle to get you better. It helps me not to think so much of "I'm fighting cancer" and more of "I'm doing what my body needs to get it better as quickly as possible".
I find doing yoga Nidra and hypnosis helps to keep on top of the anxiety.
