Good morning everyone.
Bit of a long story but mainly looking for other peoples experiences.
My wife had a right hemicolectomy early October after suddenly diagnosed with bowel cancer, no symptoms except the last couple of weeks being a bit constipated.
She recovered well (no stoma)over the next few weeks , first appointment with doctors after over three weeks to be told over 40 lymph nodes were cancerous, not sure where it had spread.
About 4 weeks after surgery she started to feel unwell and blocked up again, back and fore to A@E in and out of hospital basically a nightmare as she was deteriorating rapidly.
They had to do another emergency surgery and were able to fit a stoma this time. The surgeon informed me after the op it has spread drastically and he didn’t expect my wife to live until Christmas. ( she didn’t know this but knew it had spread) We were obviously devastated .
We finally seen our oncologist who gave us hope and said though he cannot cure her he could treat her. Folfox was supposed to start after Christmas.
Unfortunatly she deteriorated again on New Year’s Day, her abdomen was filling with fluid as it had spread to the peritoneum, she was supposed to start chemo on the 3rd January. In A&E again for 20 hours no beds available. Sent home even though stoma was blocked, 2 hours later vomiting feacal matter. The following day she was due to have the chemo but was admitted thankfully to a ward . They managed to drain 5 litres from her abdomen.
In the meantime her oncologist managed to get funding for Cetuximab and Encorafenib which she started 2 weeks ago.
Her oncologist visited her a week ago and thinks it is beginning to work which is great news. She is eating quite well but is very, very weak and quite light headed. Has anyone else had this combination of drugs and can offer some advice?
Mark
