New here- Diagnosed today

Oh I’m so sorry to hear your diagnosis and I’m glad you’ve found Macmillan- this is a good community and also do feel free to call the nurses for support.  I’m sure you’re reeling from the news and I’ll try to share from our experience (my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 - spread to liver - a year ago).  

First, waiting for the next scans and results is torture.  For the doctors it will feel very fast.  For you every day will feel an eternity.  For us it was one week to get the scan, another week to get the results.  Try to be patient and don’t think too much until you know what you’re dealing with.  Be careful of Google - so much information is outdated as treatments and survival rates are getting better all the time.

Once you get the results, a team of doctors will decide what’s next.  For my husband, it was colon surgery, chemo, and liver surgery.  The surprise for us is you can’t just do it all at once - you have to recover from each treatment before the next one starts.  And so we are 12 months in and still on the first series of treatments.  So far in the path he’s been everything from very sick to quite normal and “healthy “ depending on where he is in his treatments.  You can start to plan now how you will prepare for those sick times -do you work?  You will likely need a month off for colon surgery.  After surgery, my husband was almost back to normal after 2 weeks, but only for short spurts and got tired quickly.  After 2 months he was back to regular energy, and then the chemo started.

I recommend for your doctor appointments, you always bring someone else, and take notes - things will fly out of your head.

You’ll have a lot of worry and anxiety - cancer is a lousy disease.  Do check in here whenever you have questions.  People have told me colon cancer is one of the “better” ones to deal with.  I don’t really know what that means.  On good days we say “ oh this isn’t so bad” but on bad days it is everything that is bad about cancer.

best wishes.

Oh and one more thing- you asked for positive stories- there are lots on here as bowel cancer often has an excellent cure rate.

Hi Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, it’s all abit crazy in my head at the moment, I work from home which is good so at least I don’t have to travel anywhere 

like you say it’s the waiting that’s the worse bit, I think once I know for sure what’s happening and if it’s spread then I can deal with it 

I’m having blood tests on Monday then they said I should get the scans done this week so hopefully within 2 weeks I will know what I’m dealing with 

I forgot to ask the doctor today if a 51mm tumour is classed as big and I’m sure I’ll have more questions 

Thank you again, I’ll update on here as and when I have more news incase I can help someone else like you have with me x 

Yes, we started writing all our questions down before the appointment so we’d remember what to ask!  You’ll also want to know where the tumor is which can indicate what type of surgery you might have to remove it.  And sometimes they’ll want to shrink the tumor first with chemo before they remove it. Best wishes for the waiting period- try not to worry.  

Thank you x 

Hi Seashelley and a warm welcome to the board from me. You’ve had a brilliant reply from  and I will add that bowel cancer is notoriously slow growing but very treatable. I agree with your decision to hold off telling people because once I’d met with the consultant I was able to tell them that there was no spread and they were treating me “with a view to cure”

Size does not matter! The stage of the cancer is defined by how far the tumour has spread into the bowel wall and whether there is spread to other organs. Depending on where the tumour is then you may have chemoradiotherapy to shrink it prior to surgery or you may go straight to surgery - mine was 4cm but shrank to 1cm after radiochemo.

Positive stories? I was diagnosed in 2016 and became firm friends online with another 2 ladies who were also stage 3. We are all still cancer free. If you click on my name then you can see my profile page although I’m maybe not the best example as I had a couple of hiccups along the way!

There will be tough months ahead both mentally and physically but everyone on the board will be happy to support you through this, share experience and answer any questions no matter how embarrassing! There’s some questions in this booklet but I think Juppys  are better!

https://bowelcancerorguk.s3.amazonaws.com/Publications/YourPathway_BowelCancerUK.pdf

Take care

Karen x

Hi Karen thank you so much for taking the time to reply, that’s amazing you and your friends are cancer free, it’s just all a big shock isn’t it and the waiting until you find out is torture, I will take a look at the links and your profile 

thank you again x 

Hi, Seashelley, big ((hugs)) and ask what you want, we have all been in your shoes. It is very curable, 2 years ago I was in your shoes, now progressing well cancer wise. 

Thank you so much for replying, Im glad I found this group I think I’ll be using it a lot x

Seashelly. 
I’m sorry you’re going through this.
I’ve been there and I decided not to tell anyone until I knew what the plan was in a way I think I needed time to process the information before sharing it.
My growth was 100mm, which was causing serious issues in my day to day functioning as you can imagine. My life was busy worrying about others that needed attention and I just kept going. That’s one lesson I’ve learned, listen to my body.
The treatment for Bowel cancer has amazing results. I am recovering after my operation and didn’t need further treatment, though I thought chemo was possible, I’m going to be monitored. I really hope this helps, your team will fit your treatment to your needs. 
Take one day at a time.
I’m sending you my very heartfelt wishes. Take care 

Artsie Ann