The beginning of my journey

Hi Lf77

You are having a terrible time and have good cause to be in a pickle. 
This is a good place to be when you’re feeling confused , frightened and trying to stay upbeat to protect your loved ones.  Before my treatment plan I was all over the place. The waiting is the worst.
You are young and have teaching to look forward to. 
Keep chatting if it helps. 

Hi Lf77 and welcome to the board. There’s a lot of different treatments for liver mets and I’m sure court will be along shortly but if you click on her name then you can see her mums story. I’ve attached a link to a booklet that covers liver mets which may help?

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

Once you have a treatment plan in place then things will honestly feel a bit better and you can maybe look at finishing your Teacher training or see if postponing part of it is an option?

Family and friends support is so important but I found myself being upbeat to the point of casual so as not to worry anyone. It’s hard for people who’ve not walked in your shoes to understand how you feel so I’m glad you’ve found us here - this is where you can offload and we’ll listen and help and support you through this

Take care

Karen x

Hi Lf77

Welcome and what a terrible shock . Couple of points , you are still very young . Secondly if you can get your head round it I would finish your course or seek and extension . 
When it comes to the liver , it is a very large and robust organ that can regenerate . It does come down to location of mets and volume of disease . To put that into context my mum had what was described as significant disease and was classed as inoperable . What a blow ! However chemotherapy is very successful for a subgroup of patients and the shrinkage allowed her to meet the surgical criteria. You will see patients on forums in their fifth and sixth year using chemo in a maintenance setting as a chronic condition . Not all patients unfortunately but with more treatments coming through this is a slowly growing group . 

My own mum was backwards and forwards for a few years until she caught a break . I am going to tag in Star74 as she is around your age group and I think it would also give you a boost to see how she has progressed with treatment .

In terms of finding some more solid ground . Bowel cancer has actually quite a lot of different treatment options . From chemotherapy , surgical options and radio frequency ablation . All have criteria and often chemotherapy is the first port of call . This is actually a good plan as it not only systemically allows it to target the visible disease but the invisible . I attribute it to turning my mum’s prognosis around .

My mum did have her tough times for sure but with the support of her team she slowly chipped away at the tumour load in her body . It never went back to the point of diagnosis.

In terms of the liver . It has eight segments . My mum’s liver was disease free from segment 1 to 3 . She went to a centre of excellence for the liver and they removed 73% . Her liver has remained clear since 2010 . She was where you are now back in 2009 . I can assure you they have become much more proactive with treatment since back then .

Once you get your treatment plan you can start to feel as though you are tackling it . 
Some people actually don’t have many side effects from treatment so if you can get your head around it you could finish your course if you are in that group .

However this is a lot to process so remember to listen to your body as my mum always says and best foot forward !

I for one am holding out to celebrate a forum graduation !

Take care ,

Court 

Hi. I meant to ask are you in your finals as NQT 

Hi,

No I am a full time student still (a mature one :) ) 

Decided to take the leap after Covid as I though you do t know what’s round the corner, bit ironic now. 

I am full time in school though, so it’s isn’t something I can miss much if. On the job training! 

I have just had a call from the hospital and they still do t have date for biopsy so feeling deflated. Surely they have timelines to fulfil with these sorts of things

It is a bit slower getting some of the biopsy stuff / scans done and just when you are really feeling it , suddenly it speeds up . The biopsy is pretty informative in directing the chemotherapy best suited to your cell type but it is for sure a frustrating process .

Do you have a pupil support person you can contact ? They will assist you to negotiate with your course . 

We also have a helpline of you want to chat in person . 0808 808 0000

take care ,

Court

Hopefully the school will have the flexibility  for you to work around any treatment. If you talk to the head they should accommodate you as they have a duty of care. It would be good to have that cleared one less worry You also should have a mentor within the school if the heads not approachable for a while. They always seem to piled up with paperwork. Most would rather be teaching.

I’m not sure what keystage you’re in. Or even if it’s called that anymore. It changes with the wind. 

Courts answered your other questions she’s an amazing font of knowledge helping us all. 

Definitely amazing

Hi Lf77

So sorry to hear of you diagnosis but glad you have found yourself here, it's been a great support to me over the last 15 months.

I know exactly how you're feeling, I was diagnosed at 46, spread to the liver, no symptoms apart from blood in stools which was put down to piles, complete shock and crushed my world.  You are in the worst place at the moment, I promise it will feel better after you have met your oncologist and have a treatment plan.  It's seems to take ages but there is a lot of information being gathered so they can tailor the treatment to your tumour type..  I won't say try to keep busy to take your mind off it as it will be your every waking thought and keeping up a positive front for friends and family is exhausting so just make sure you are kind to yourself.

Both the nurse and my oncologist said the best thing I can do is exercise, even just a walk in the fresh air.  I continued exercising when I could all through my treatment and it def helped.

I was inoperable for quite a while.  Due to my age, my oncologist gave me the 'big guns' chemo!  I had scans after every 4 cycles which showed shrinkage and after about 8 months and a second opinion, I had my liver resection in Nov.  I am now half way through radiotherapy to the bowel and am hoping to have the primary removed.

It sounds like you have lots of support from friends and family which is brilliant.  I won't say it's all been easy all of the time but you will get your head in the right place and you can do this. 

The side effects from chemo are cumulative and are usually given by infusion fortnightly so it could be that you are able to finish your course. It would be worth a chat with the course organisers (sorry I have no idea what they're called)!! I'm sure they will be understanding and will find a way of working around this.

I hope you get your treatment plan soon, in the meantime this is a great place to chat/vent/ask questions.  Please keep us updated and take care of yourself. 

Michelle.xx

Thank you so much for your reply. Like you say, keeping busy does nothing really, I’m busy and my mind is still whirring. I’m absolutely exhausted most days just due to mental exhaustion. 

I do hope every licks into place soon and I can start trying to fight this somehow. 

Lou x