Hello just joined

Hi there ! I'm in a very similar position to you - I had no symptoms (cancer discovered in a colonoscopy in July following a positive routine screening FIT) and then quickly had surgery to remove left large bowel with tumour at the end of August.

Follow up histology showed no lymph nodes affected. I was originally told that a course of adjuvant chemo would be recommended, but at the initial consultation with the oncologist was told that further analysis of tumour showed as MSI-H and therefore chemo not beneficial. 

Fingers crossed I'm now cancer free,  although the CT scans and pre-op highlighted a few other non-related things to follow up on - as someone said to me, once they get their hooks into you, they won;t let go! 

So like you I feel like a bit of a fraud at the moment - just a bad dream over the summer that I've now woken up from.

I count myself very lucky.

You are both cancer survivors in my opinion.  Don't discount your experience just because you got lucky and didn't need the full treatment. 

About 20 years ago, I had a rare neuroendocrine tumor on my pancreas. It was an accidental finding and still very small. I had no symptoms.  Quick surgery and I was considered cured. I did 9 years of surveillance and it was over. I never considered myself a cancer survivor from that until I got rectal cancer. Then I recognized how similar the experiences were. 

I am happy you didn't need chemo or radiation and encouraged that screening is working to make this a less difficult journey for some people.  

Hi Luckyno13  Great to hear that your cancer was caught early and the treatment a success. Cancer is cancer regardless of the staging or treatment required. I can understand how you feel and I think it is referred to as survivors guilt? I’ve attached a link to a paper that you might find helpful

https://www.workingwithcancer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/After-the-treatment-finishes-then-what.pdf

Take care

Karen x

Hi , that is great news but like you 12 months ago I was diagnosed and had surgery with no chemo needed .

I have 3 monthly check ups and in 1 week I have my yearly colonoscopy and ct scan .I am absolutely terrified and making my self feel so poorly that because I had no chemo etc that it will be found again , I have more stomach bowel issues post surgery than I had before .any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated .

Kareno62,

Wow! Thanks for posting the link to that paper. It was massively helpful to me. 

 Susan13 I’m so pleased you found it helpful. It’s a great paper isn’t it and really covers the after effects of cancer? Lots of people have said they still go back to it when they’re having a bit of a wobble or have printed it off to show family/friends/colleagues to show that you’re not always ‘better’ now treatments finished x

• Hi there.  I am new to this.  I have recurring rectal bleeding for a while now and eventually spoke to my doctor who gave me a fit test to do and this came back with a results of 200.  I had my colonoscopy yesterday and there is a mass low down in the colon.  I’m just interested in your experience.  The doctor has said that the biopsy taken will need to be tested and I will need an mri scan and obviously need the results.  I guess my question is how  did you navigate this early part.?  Also your story has lifted my sprits that it’s a possibility that things can go well  quickly.  Please don’t ever feel like a fraud you’re amazing!  My only first hand experience of cancer with family and friends has been devastating with no happy ending.   

thanks so much for that - a really informative paper.

Hi Scoutabout, I've also replied on your other thread. In answer to your question, to be honest, the early days  were all a bit of a blur as everything moved very fast and I'm not sure it really sunk in. I have heard references to a postcode lottery,  - I'm not sure if I was lucky with where I live but everything seemed to happen pretty quickly. Although the lady doing the colonoscopy did take samples for biopsy, she was pretty confident just from what she saw that it was a tumour (I have no medical experience but even I thought it didn't look good on the screen - I had a couple of nice smooth mushroom shaped polyps that she removed, but this 'mass' looked completely different). So I was assigned a colorectal nurse contact and fast tracked to get a CT scan the very next day and put on the waiting list for surgery at the next MDT meeting. My initial date for surgery was put back after my pre-op assessment suggested I might have a previously undetected heart murmur, so I had to have another appointment to get an echocardiogram to get the all-clear for surgery. this eventually happened towards the end of August, and I've recovered really well - I feel as good, if not better now as I did before I took that FIT test. Still not sure that it's really sunk in, as everything happened so quickly it;s rather like a bad dream. I took the attitude that if there were things I could do to help myself I would (I was told to do more walking and do breathing exercises to prepare for surgery) but if there were things that I had no control over I would try not to worry about them (easier said than done sometimes, but worrying doesn't help!). I'm a natural optimist and I think a positive attitude does help get you through things like this..  

Thank you so much.  This sounds exactly the same as my colonoscopy.  I could see the mass and it looked so different to the clear smooth colon in the rest of the examination.   Except for the bleeding I’ve been feeling well in myself as in I’ve been doing everything that I normally would.  Gym, taking my daughter to school walking the dog going out with friends.  I’m probably more tired than normal but I think I can link that to the stress.   When I have a bleed it’s been scary and I go into a blind panic.  I know everyone’s cancer journeys are different and unique to them but these messages are stopping me from staying in bed to hide away from the world and feeling sorry for myself. It’s helping me tell my daughter what’s going on without it sounding scary.  Just something that shouldn’t be in mummy’s tummy and the doctor will take it out.  For now that’s all I know anyway.  I did have a look on my NHS app yesterday and I’m on the waiting list for surgery.  I was told on Thursday that the team meet every Tuesday to discuss the cases so because I’ve not yet had my scan I’ll probably come up on the meeting a week on Tuesday.   Once again thank you so much.  Xx