Just diagnosed

I meant to say, I'm 62 and female.

Hi Thisisme1 and a warm welcome to the board. The waiting for results, scans and meetings is very stressful but once you have a plan in place then things will honestly feel a bit better? Stay away from google as it is not always helpful - there’s lots of help on here and the bowel cancer uk board and, if you click on peoples names, then their profile page may show their treatment to date.

Ive attached a link to a booklet that I was given at my first meeting which may help with terminology, what to expect etc.

bowelcancerorguk.s3.amazonaws.com/.../YourPathway_BowelCancerUK.pdf

The type of operation you have will depend on how low the tumour is in the rectum. The surgeon needs to remove the tumour and some of the cancer free surrounding area (clear margins) then rejoin the remaining bowel back together. If there’s enough bowel left to rejoin then you may just have a temporary stoma to allow time for the join to heal. If the tumour is very low in the rectum then there may not be enough bowel to rejoin and the surgeon will perform an Abdominal Perineal Resection (APR) and you would have a permanent stoma. 

The chemoradiotherapy is radiotherapy and a mild dose of chemo in tablet form which can be very successful in reducing the size of rectal tumours before surgery. Try not to stress too much about what type of surgery you will be having until you have the full picture from the consultant and have had your chemoradiotherapy treatment.

Im glad you’ve joined us on here - we’re all at different stages of treatment and recovery and happy to help and support you through yours. Feel free to ask anything you like and we’ll try our very best to answer you and the support desk if always there on the number below if you want to chat to someone in person?

Take care

Karen x

Thank you, Karen.  I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner.  I had my CT scan on Tuesday they're discussing me at MDT this morning and my nurse is going to ring me after that.  Since this was confirmed yesterday every hour has lasted an eternity and even the sleeping tablets my GP prescribed didn't help last night.  So later today I'll have the outline of what they discussed and hopefully an outpatients appointment next week.  

My only good news this week, biopsies confirmed the cancer buy yhe 2 polyps they also removed were completely clear.

Telling my sons is the next big hurdle.  They're here later next week.

Jill

Hello Thisisme1,

Did you read that on the Internet as a general search? If so, don't take it for granted and wait until the colorectal team outline what they are going to do, based on their findings. They will do what is best for you in your circumstances. Before the Internet many of us would read a medical dictionary and then convince ourselves we had various illnesses and ailments - all nonsense. I found it best to deal with evidence and not supposition. You are not alone in thinking the worst in these early days but you will learn that cancer is treatable and bowel cancer particularly so. Try not to over-think your present situation and take each step in your treatment programme as it arises. Everyone you meet will be there to help you return to a near-normal life. My daughters took it well when I told them straight what I knew. Still here two years later and looking forward to next year's holidays!

Dulac