My journey

Hi xray and a warm welcome to the board. I’m sure court will be along shortly but in the meantime you could click on her name and see her mums journey to date.

It can be very difficult for the other partner as all the focus tends to be in the patient. The support desk would be happy to chat to her in the number below or she could post on the Friends and Family board.

You sound to be tolerating the chemo ok and I hope this continues with some good results at the end

Take care

Karen x

Welcome to the forum xray  . You have developed a very good strategy for recessing treatment already . My mum found she got into a good routine with chemo although she found it harsh.  Slight adjustments made it better for her .

Someone told us early on to keep your mind where your body is and not let it travel to worse case scenarios . That worked well for her . She focused on staying well and taking it one segment at a time .

They do track tumour markers for bowel cancer called CEA . They used to give this information out but not so popular as chemo itself can cause it to spike but they like to see a downward trajectory. My mum’s went down then popped right up and it was an unsettling experience.

However her tumours responded very well to treatment and popped right off the scan . She has been in and out of treatment and surgery for 14 years . She has just finished 10 months of a biological agent at 81 . It has reduced most of the current spread and achieved all it is likely to do . She is frail now and her disease slow growing so probably won’t interfere too much going forward .

Volume of disease and location can impact things but there is a good leaflet I will link in when I get home that gives some good insight into how it can be managed . Some people are literally using chemo for six and seven years and still getting good results .

Not everyone is so fortunate. But my mum had used three approaches , chemo , targeted drugs and surgery and each has played a good roll in moving her forward .

There are treatments like Radio frequency ablation but a lot of criteria too .

You sound as though you have made a good start with your treatment.

Mum is waiting on me to cut her hair . A trip to hospital for a few days has knocked her appointment off so I am the substitute.

Best foot forward .

Take care ,

Court 

Ps I totally understand your wife’s situation too . It is sometimes hard watching from the sidelines and trying to process the best way to be supportive whilst feeling overwhelmed inside . But we get there , over and over again . They say a stage 4 diagnosis is a marathon not a sprint  and that’s exactly how we see it . Constantly digging deeper but also often making some progress and still enjoying the good times . 

Hi xray

I am  a similar case to you when I was diagnosed in July 21.Post surgery and before Folfox chemo started I was given a CT and PET scan when they discovered a met on my liver. After  6 months chemo the liver Met disappeared so technically NED  I’ve had 3 monthly scans ( now 4 monthly) and  still clear. ( latest scan result yesterday)
Hope this helps.

Thank you so much this was really helpful and my wife appreciated the passage about her best regards to you and your mother.

Thank you so much this is what i wanted to hear something positive for a change good luck and i hope you keep clear that's brilliant news.

thank you so much for the info its good to talk to other people about our situation as they understand what we are going through.