I work mostly on M&A deals, so I also spend a lot of time in the office, and in meetings. So I wanted to try to give a rough objective timeline of how my function improved after reversal: 2 weeks: useless. Negligible control. 10+ movements a day. Painful. Wore adult diapers. 4-6 weeks: significa...

I recently watched this amazing 20 min interview which explained so many aspects of this in great detail, and also just how hard it is to predict who will be affected, and in what way. Perhaps might give some insights to help in this. https://www.stmarksacademicinstitute.org.uk/resources/podcast-12-...

I don’t mind “we” in the context of decision making with wives, husbands, etc. as very often these are in fact joint decisions that affect everyone (although the patient is always at the centre of the ‘decision circle’). But if anyone says “we have cancer” I tend to throw up in my mouth a little. PS...

I’m sorry about your news, but glad you found this group. This is such a tough call. I must say that my first impression based on what you describe was that CAPOX feels like overkill. This is a clear 2A with no additional high risk factors (except perhaps a slightly bulkier T3 tumour). The post-surg...

Hey Bwat, sorry about your experiences. I too have LARS, although not as bad as some. NHMike is clearly the foremast authority, however there’s also an awesome Facebook group called Living With Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS), which is hugely helpful and I’ve learned a LOT from. Best of luck,...

Thanks for all the encouragement all, overall I’m doing really well! I have some LARS from the rectal surgery, but I think I’m ‘lucky’ in that it’s relatively minor compared to what many people go through. I can mainly control it with Imodium, fasting, diet, and enemas if I have to. I still have bad...

Congrats on the eMBA! I can’t comment on the sociolegal issues as I’m not in the US, but one suggestion would be to ask your onc if he’d be happy with you doing XELOX (CAPOX). This is the same “active” drugs, but you take the 5FU orally. It means you only have an infusion every 3 weeks rather than e...

Hi Annajane,

SBRT or similar could be a possibility but it really depends on the number, size and location of the mets. Can you give us a rough idea what you’re dealing with here in this regard?

Thanks, Rob

Congrats! Me too - must be the week for it. How’s it feeling? Mine is actually more sore than I was expecting (not that I’m complaining).

My CT recent scan during final CAPOX cycle in Feb showed NED with the v small liver spots unchanged (this radiologist - rather than classifying them as cysts or fatty deposition - stated that differential diagnosis of these spots included cysts and hemangiomas). However, my most recent CEA has clim...

AmyG wrote:OMG, YOU TOO?????

That's great news, I'm excited for you!

Thanks Amy! Actually it was your post that reminded me I should post something . Congrats!

A very good summary above. The other clinical point worth noting is that the presence of a KRAS mutation all but guarantees that a particular tumour won’t respond to treatment with EGFR inhibitors (such as Erbitux and Vectibix), so these should not be used. Because of this, KRAS (and NRAS) mutated t...

Well my 15-month PET was clear, and the onc wants to deport me next week. I’m a bit surprised but not complaining! He checked if I was superstitious about it; I’m not, so away it goes. We also had a negotiation about scan frequency - he was happy to go to 6 months but I’m still a little anxious so w...

Congrats Amy! Amazing news

All very good points above. The only other comment I’d make is that we need to be careful to not conflate information about capecitabine/5FU monotherapy, with the much lower dosages used when capecitabine is a radiosensitiser for chemoradiation. I took a total 2,000 mg/d of Xeloda during radiation w...