Transferring to a different hospital

Hi ,

Welcome to the forum . Very pleased you joined us but sad that you have to be here . 

Deciding on a hospital can be tricky as you do have to factor in journey times if you are having side effects to treatment and I guess that’s currently an unknown . My own family have been navigating a stage 4 diagnosis for ten years with my mum and getting the right people involved at the right time does require more thought put into it . Here’s how we went about it . We decided chemo was pretty standard for the first couple of rounds so started with our local hospital who had an experienced oncologist on board who could become creative with chemotherapy further down the road if required . But we kept a firm eye on who we would consult with at the end of that process if required for a second opinion . So we used the time to familiarise ourselves with chemotherapy options , first , second and third line . Kept an eye on new treatments and looked at research documents to see what surgeons and radiotherapy was achieving and what was in the pipeline .

If I was you I would also what to know a bit more about your MSS or MSI to see if Immuotherapy is an option for you further down the road . The information may not be available yet . But Immuotherapy is just coming through and achieving quite a lot of good results . 

I am going to work but can link you in later with a good article that explains it .

Second opions can be had at any point in time and not fixed in stone so taking your time to find the right person to consult with is something that can happen further down the road . The forums are quite good for that . 

There is a lot of good information on treatment options on Bowel cancerUk stage 4 thread . The booklet at the top has all the possibilities listed . I will see if I still have it . 

You have had some difficult news regarding the spread . If you click on my user name you can read my mum’s story . Despite a difficult diagnosis and significant spread she was also very chemo responsive. She has just had another good scan . Her lymph nodes after surgery had not one living cancer cell in them . Hope it gives you some encouragement at the start of your journey. 

Take care,

Court 

The above is the list of chemotherapy options that is available for Bowel cancer . 

Some oncologist are incredibly skilled at being creative in their use. 

Take care ,

Court