Hello! Newly diagnosed and now with a treatment plan: Hopeful but worried about the full monty plan...

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Hi All,

David here and thank you to MacMillan for sponsoring this and to all of the fellow members for joining these forums!

I was recently diagnosed with a T3 N1 M0 distal sigmoid adenocarcinoma. There may be one lymph node involved (hence N1) although inconclusive and no metastases detected which I'm certainly happy about. The MDT decided to recommend neoadjuvant 5 weeks chemo-radiation (with capecitabine (Xeloda)), then 3 months Oxaliplatin/Xeloda chemo followed by surgery with a reversible ileostomy. Fortunately the ultimate prognosis is good so am holding on to that.

The plan is designed to give the best odds to shrink the tumour and remove everything (including the questionable lymph node) with safe margins. I've agreed but do have some trepidation with the length/aggressiveness of this plan, the potential for side effects and my work situation. I realise this is probably a fairly common question here but can anyone comment about what realistic expectations I should have regarding working whilst going through the radio and chemotherapy sections? I appreciate that everyone is different but is there anyone out there that managed to work whilst undergoing a similar treatment plan?

Many thanks and, although I think is fair to say no one wants to be here, I'm very grateful that people are and appears to be a very supportive community.

David

Kareno62 over 2 years ago

Hi David and a warm welcome to the board. As you say everyone reacts differently to treatment but if you click on peoples names then you can often see their experience from their profile page.

I was diagnosed in 2016 and had 5 weeks chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery followed by xelox (oxaliplatin and capecitabine) -the difference in treatment order is due to recent research which has shown that pre-op chemo is just as effective as post-op and also increases the chance of complete response (total obliteration of the tumour)

I was fortunate to not have any serious side effects from the chemoradiotherapy (the chemo side is quite a low dose which is used to enhance the effect of the radiotherapy) so I used to ask for the earliest appointment of the day and go into work straight after.
The oxaliplatin is the nastier of the 2 and can have quite a few side effects which you will probably experience to 1 degree or another. It’s given by iv which can take several hours so I used to have that day off but then go into work the rest of the time apart from one day when my arm was really sore and sensitive from the iv.

I used to work part-time in an office so the oncologist was happy for me to continue working - I found it helped me feel ‘normal’ and was good for me mentally - but if you worked in a school for example where you are exposed to lots of coughs and sneezes then it might be different?
After the op you won’t be allowed to drive or lift anything heavier than a cupful of water in a kettle for 6 weeks and, if you have a physical job, then you might be at risk of a hernia but your stoma nurse would be able to advise you about that.

I’ve attached a link to a post that we did about chemo top tips - hope it’s not too scary but sometimes it helps to be prepared and know what’s normal and what isn’t

Chemo care ! Top Tips:-

Hope this helps and feel free to ask anything you like - there is nothing too daft or embarrassing on here

Take care

Karen x

ps there’s a great stoma support board too but cross that bridge when you get to it

Macmillan Support Line - 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

David RL over 2 years ago in reply to Kareno62

Thank you Karen! Very helpful and will check out the profiles too. I'm sure more queries will pop up as I move along and will also look to see what's already been discussed.