Hi everyone. My journey has been very swift and it's hard keeping up but briefly I'm 66 years old and had an emergency appendicectomy back in August, which although unpleasant probably saved my life. Had umbilical wound cellulitis followed by the wound completely breaking down. I then had a wound revision followed by packing every other day at my local hospital. Went for the check-up (I thought) and found out the results from the appendix and it was found to be a mucinous adenocarcinoma with signet ring cells! Quite rare I believe (and Google was a VERY scary read). Now that was a total shock!. However, I had a full CT scan and a colonoscopy with biopsies taken within 2 weeks and it was all clear. Due to the unfortunate type of tumour (grade lll) the MDT decided to give me a right hemicolectomy which I had end of October and all 17 lymph nodes taken were also thankfully clear. So, now I am looking at chemotherapy as a prevention of recurrence and I am due to start the regime of 8 cycles of capecitabine 2000mgs on 5th December orally. I feel well following the surgery (no wound infections this time around) and recovering well. I've been trying to gauge how I am likely to feel taking this medication so any experiences anyone has had will be gratefully received. I am scared of the possible sickness and diarrhea plus the other unpleasant effects I have read about but got to give it a go. I'm extremely grateful to the swift responses at my local hospital. They're fabulous. I'm also enrolled on the NHS launch pad trial so who knows where that might lead. Hoping to hear from others in a similar situation to share my journey with. Best wishes to you all
Hi DSH58 and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I'm sorry to read that you've recently been diagnosed with cancer of the appendix and I know how difficult hearing you have cancer can be.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I thought I'd mention that you might also like to join the pseudomyxoma peritonei group where you'll connect directly with others who have appendix cancer.
To join, just click on the links I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your diagnosis and treatment to date into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
