Colorectal cancer

Hi, HelenBK, a warm welcome after a rough start for you. I too had mop up chemo, see my profile. It would help if you completed yours, saves repeating everything. Glad you now trust your medics that makes a huge difference. Take care.

Hello Gemmary, 

thank you so much. Yes, I feel lucky. My surgeon told me after chemo he expects to see nothing. So I’m hopeful. It’s such a journey. It’s Nice to be among people who have an understanding of all this. I hope by next Spring I can be a mini Monty don in the garden. It can be lonely. Finding it so hard to sleep, it’s 4am by the time I nod off. 

Welcome from me too ! HelenBK you have endured a lot in the past two years and the sleep issues are tough in themselves .

We are holding you to the mini Monty Don and we hope to see your photos too on our catch up thread . We are holding you to it !

How many more cycles have you got to go ? 

Court 

Hello Court, thank you so much. I have four more rounds and I’m hoping that’s it.. The surgeon says he is not expecting to see anything in future scans. As I have the stoma, he said he took good good margins. Yes, I will be sending photos, and by the way I’m in south dublin, so we are all avid fans of gardeners world. And our other hero is Delia Smith. Her Christmas book is the favourite. 

I am a Mary Berry girl myself and can get lost for a few happy hours baking ! I also love the garden and to be very honest not sure what I am doing at all but I love flowers and give it a go . I have a small burn in the middle of my garden which cuts up a small garden but it is pretty . I shall post some when I get back home . On the chat thread Kareno62 has us all set up with an App to identify flowers so we are actually starting to sound as though we know a thing or two ! I am slowly learning !

Its great that you have hobbies . That was something we made a great effort to maintain during my mum’s two years of chemo . We purposely found projects to focus on and it was very therapeutic in itself !

Take care ,

Court 

Hello court, well, got my 3rd round of chemo yesterday. Take the chemo bottle back tomorrow . 3 more to go. I have the Paxman chemo cap. Just afraid to brush my hair, see what the reality is. I was told by not brushing creates a mating type thing and make the cool cap  less effective. 

Hi HelenBK

I have not read too much about the cold cap . How are you finding it ? Is it uncomfortable to sit with . I find it very interesting as I noted a group of patients were using icing to control a treatment related rash on their face during infusion ! I think it must work on the same principle. I think it’s their own experiment not dr lead !

Do they want you to keep brushing your hair then ? The science aspect is very interesting however I can totally understand your appreciation.

Take care ,

Court 

Hello Court, the Paxman cool cap website and gives you the percentages of hair loss based on the drugs a patient is on. Maybe silly me I was up all night trying to find how long I’ll live it how long I’ll get away with this before it shows up again. What a whirlwind 

Hi HelenBK I had a look ! Do you mind me asking what chemo you are having ? My mum had slight thinning but did not need to cover it at all .

What a shame you had a rough night ! Only human but I hope you get some rest tonight . Was this the first surgery you had ? Or did you have surgery back in 2017 ? It’s been a big bump on the road so it is understandable that it has knocked your confidence but being operable and also chemo responsive are big positives !

My mum had a few bumps along the way but it stopped and she caught a break ! Those lonely nights are horrible so I hope it settles .

take care ,

Court 

Hello Court. 

Thank you it’s tiring. Yes I had an operation. They found i had a Cyst on my liver.  was born with it. So they took it out. Surgeon was very happy took huge margins.  They were afraid it would turn cancerous, in fact he said it would grow become another cancer.He said he didn’t think he’d see me anymore. I was on folfox and like your Mum I had hair thinning, but no loss. Now I’m on florini( not correct spelling) so thry gave me the cool cap. The company is called Paxman. There is a London based company called Penguun, cool cap. A very good  Compeny too and a person can rent them. I get mine through the hospital. People in Dublin rent them from London. I just hope after these rounds  I’ll be done with it for a few years. The surgeon said he didn’t want to see me just for check ups. I sometimes hard to believe them.