Treatment begins next week.

Hi, I love shortbread (what a great name!!) of course you can ask or vent as much as you wish!! Do you know what treatment you are getting? Then we can help better, as not everyone gets the same! All the very best! Xx

Hi Gemmary and thank you. So much has happened in the last couple of months since the initial appointment with the doctor but I can’t praise the system enough for the swiftness of their response even though I feel as though I’m in a pinball machine – go here, go there, back to here, now over there!

Starting 5 weeks of chemoradiotherapy on Wednesday followed at some point with surgery to remove the offender and have a stoma fitted. Trying not to think too far ahead and live in the here and now. I think my main concern is the distance to the hospital for treatment, which will be a 60 mile round trip whichever route is taken, and how knackered I’m going to feel.

Generally a half full kind of person but tiredness drains the glass very quickly.

Hi I love shortbread and a warm welcome to the board from me too. Good to hear that you now have a plan in place - there’s a few weeks of meetings, scans, bloods, ECGs but hopefully that will have calmed down by now.

You sound to be having the same treatment that I did. Chemoradiotherapy to shrink the tumour as much as possible, then a break to let it finish working, then surgery with a temporary stoma which I had reversed later. 
Living in the here and now is a great idea - focus on getting this first stage of treatment out of the way then move on to the next. This is a lovely time of year and the nature and weather helps to lift the spirits plus cuddles with a new grandson - priceless.

Ive attached a link to a post that we started about radiotherapy which may be of use?

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/bowel-colon-rectum-cancer-forum/f/new-here-say-hello/227598/radiotherapy-care-top-tips

Its a long round trip for you and you may find that tiredness starts to kick in at some point. Don’t be afraid to ask if you can change your appointment times. I was given the full 5 weeks worth from the off so I asked if I could change them to early morning ones when the roads would be quieter and they were happy to oblige.

If you click on people’s names then you can often see their treatment so far and feel free to ask anything you like and we’ll be happy to help and support you through this

Take care

Karen x