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Beating Bowel Cancer Community

Relatives and friends

cat64

Hello

Newbie here. . .my husband had his colonoscopy the Friday before Christmas and it showed what the surgeon called "an obvious tumour," on his sigmoid colon. He's now completed the tests and seen the colorectal surgeon who has confirmed a C1 - big so-and-so, but contained in the local area and not metastasized. Mike will need 5 and a half weeks of chemoradiation, followed by ten weeks to get over it, followed by surgery and what we hope will be a temporary stoma. What is more than unsettling is how fast these things can develop while causing only nebulous symptoms. Mike has always been rather windy so a bit more didn't seem ominous. It wasn't until an altered bowel habit and bleeding kicked in that he started to worry and by then, the tumour was already plotting world domination! From what the surgeon said today, he's caught it just in time.

Bear G

Hi @cat64
Welcome to the forum, I hope you find this a friendly place that helps support you and your husband.
I'm sorry to hear of his diagnosis but it's good news that it's been caught so early as it means there's a very high chance of cure (around 95%).
You're right about it being a bit of a sinister disease. When I was diagnosed I was super fit, a competitive middle distance runner an yogi and trained in MMA, my only symptom was a change in toilet heabits and I was diagnosed with stage 4, it's a sneaky flipping cancer!
It sounds like your hubby has a good team looking after him.
Big hugs
Bear
:x::x:

cat64

Hello Bear, thanks for the warm welcome. Your diagnosis must have been a horrendous shock, but you seem to be doing well and staying healthy and it's encouraging to know that even at advanced stages, you have to learn to live with bowel cancer, often for years. It's already becoming a chronic disease that some people will die with, while being carried off by something else. That implies opportunities and problems in itself, but at least the future is still out there.

Baxter2

Hi @cat64 and a very warm welcome to the forum from me too!

Like @Bear G says, it sounds like in many ways your hubby is in some ways fortunate to have been diagnosed early, therefore in a very good position to be cured of this horrible disease!!

The early days are probably the worst but once treatment starts you feel you’re making progress in the right direction.

Sending all my very best wishes to you both,

K ????❤️

charleyb

@cat64 i`m glad that they caught it early, and it has not spread. My husband had bowel changes for all of 4 weeks prior to being diagnosed stage 4 at 39 yrs old. He even took part in a medical trial and he was the 'healthy' control, all his tests were above average, even lung capacity, and unbeknown to us he had a 5cm tumour in his left lung! It just blows your mind when it literally comes out of the blue. But like others have said, the early days are the worst, once treatment starts you will feel a lot better :x::x::x:

Alwyn

Hi @cat64 it's such a shock at first, I remember it well. I'm sorry about your husband's diagnosis but it is very positive that it has not spread. Hold on to that, this is curable. I wish you both the very best possible outcome. :x:

cat64

Thanks to all. @Baxter2 is right about the early days being the worst and bad timing doesn't help. The colonoscopy was the Friday before Christmas. The surgeon had no choice but to tell us he'd found a tumour and then say that although the requests for scans were already in the system and he'd found a surgeon, nothing would happen till the New Year. In fact that's very quick, but it felt like an age! All a colonoscopy can really tell you is that there's a tumour, the surgeon could see it was a malignant one, but nothing about how deep it is or the extent of spread. There are some things that can't be helped and timing is one of them.

jules75

Just wanted to say hello and welcome. I'm from the North East too. I'm sure you will find this site very helpful, there are always people to help on here if you have any questions etc :x::x: