Secondary diagnosis

katykaty · February 2019

I was feeling really well - felt over the 13 months of treatment for breast cancer and starting to get my head around a reconstruction - which I had scheduled to factor in a nice Xmas (I started breast cancer treatment 7/12) and then on a quieter work period for feb 4 13 months later.

Have never had any other health issues - other than a sinus infection in 52 years. Had a bit of blood in stool and had a bit of constipation over treatment - oncologist and I didn’t think anything of it. It persisted over a month after treatment so thought I’d do the stool test - doctors thought overkill but couldn’t hurt right?

Well - returned positive too young they all said - won’t be anything. Gastroenterologist quite blasé. Me not so much - told him my history and my brother passing from brain cancer - he was a bit non plussed over that but not that much. Had a colonoscopy 19 Dec - and sure enough there’s a tumour- tiny he says - nothing to worry about- easily dealt with surgery.

In I go on 29 December - tiny says surgeon no problems - back to normal after resection easily. And then the pathology report - 15 of 28 nodes taken affected - tumour hasn’t even gone through two layers of bowel . Not unheard of they say - but very very uncommon . Great.....

So I finished herceptin on 4th March last year. I started chemo again for this on 7 feb - really struggling this time. Feel my body is completely betraying me and now just fearing what’s next. This chemo different but same - awful.

Heading in on Thursday for treatment 2 of 8. Struggling to keep a half glass full mindset - I have no other organs involved from either this or the breast cancer from the staging so have to focus on that as it is a good thing. Just feeling a bit low....

SSInUK · March 2019

I wanted to jump in to offer support as this is very very hard for you. I am no expert on bowel cancer but my mother and a close friend are long term survivors of poor prognosis dx so please do hold on to hope, it is there. One positive is that if you get through five years you really are considered cured of bowel cancer so i pray you get to cross this one off your anxiety list further down the line. Good luck. All my thoughts with you

Wised · March 2019

As you can see in my signature, I too have dealt with two primary cancers in a short time. I just did them the opposite of you. I was diagnosed with stage 3b colon cancer three years ago. Cancer sucks, but cancer tx REALLY sucks! I'm glad yours was caught early, mine perforated my bowel and took a huge open surgery to remove. FOLFOX is crappy. I hated it and I hated my port. I ended up switching to Xeloda. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions or just want to chat.

katykaty · April 2019

thanks SSInUK - it certainly helps to know your mum and close friend's outcomes. I'm finding this treatment harder - possibly due to my state of mind as well. Thanks for your kind response

katykaty · April 2019

thanks Wised - a friend of my mum had it in your order too but she was lucky enough to avoid chemo both times. I was lucky with the size of the tumour- just not with the lymph nodes! Can't decide whether my lymph nodes are working perfectly or letting me down...

I'm glad and sad to hear you struggled with FOLFOX too. I'm finding the side effects really tough this time and wondered if it was just my state of mind - probably that too. I'm finding the Oxililiplaten component the toughest - my onc has reduced the dosage and it was a bit better last round. 4 still to go - he says as I am so high risk he may want to extend the 5FU component to another 4and I'm considering changing to Xeloda then as the pump gets me down too.

Thanks so much for your message - I may be in touch later to see how you handled that switch

Secondary diagnosis

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