How do you mean prepare for it to get worse before it's finished ? I'm left with 2 more cycles and will be using a new arm for that, I'm hoping nothing too bad will happen !! I haven't been particularly struck with fatigue as yet except for the first 3-4 days after infusion. But yes, it's definitel...

Jolene, my MRIs only take 45 minutes, I wonder why yours take 1.5 hours? For my last few infusions I had them switch arms half way thru the infusion. that might be something for you to consider. Yes, the treatment is bitch to get thru, and be prepared for it to get worse before it's finished. You ju...

Thank you, mozart13

Just wanted to report this week marks the four year anniversary of my Complete Clinical Response and being offered the W&W program. :!: :D I had a follow up rectal exam back in April. As usual my surgeon had one of her residents in tow. I remarked to him that Dr McLemore had literally saved my a...

My problem during chemo was exactly the opposite of constipation. Sometimes with the nausea I felt like a human fire hose at both ends! :D I had a different doctor for my last colonoscopy, and part of his prep was to drink a 10oz bottle of magnesium citrate the day before beginning the regular MiraL...

My arm is no longer aching, the ache went away around day 4/5 but that was also the time when I felt the most exhausted when the steroid weans off. It's day 12 of my very first cycle and I'm starting to feel mild tingling on my palms. I guessed its coming !!! Hi Jolene, the tingling in the palms is...

Jolene, the first cycle wasn't too bad at all, I was pleasantly surprised. I think chemo might be like radiation, in that the effects become cumulative. On the oxi infusions, they were infused thru a vein on the inside of an elbow, and the nurse would find the best looking vein to stick each time I ...

Back in 2015 the standard chemo protocol was twelve 2-week cycles of Folfox, or eight 3-week cycles of Xelox. I chose the Xelox, but after six cycles my blood counts fell so low the 7th cycle kept getting delayed. After three weeks delay my oncologist cancelled the last two Oxaliplatin infusions and...

Jolene, my very experienced colorectal surgeon strongly advised me to take a course of mop-up chemo. I began six months of XELOX almost immediately after my cCR. If you read back thru this thread you will find we have had two or three posters who went on W&W and had a recurrence. All of them did...

Jolene, most Drs are not used to patients who have done their research and are advocating for a different treatment plan than the one they are proposing. Hopefully your Dr will be open minded, but if not stick to your guns, and force him to have a conversation. Once you make him realize he's not the...

Hi Jolene, if your Dr could feel your tumor site it must have been very low, just like mine. My Dr told me she didn't take a sample for biopsy because it would have involved cutting into the sphincter muscles and that could have had a long term effect on the muscle function. She also said that when ...

lakeswim wrote:Yes, PRS. My second opinion surgeon said he uses flex sig as the most critical data point for determining cCR.

Hi lakeswim, thanks for confirming this. I was following your treatment journey with great interest. Have you been able to come to any final decisions?

Hi Jolene, I do hope your PET/CT tomorrow turns out well. One interesting thing I would like to point out is that my Dr relied almost exclusively on visual observation of the tumor site to determine CCR. I did have confirming MRIs and she did feel the site with her fingers, but she used some kind of...

I have a Kaiser Medicare Advantage plan so don't have to worry about insurance. If a Kaiser Dr schedules me for a procedure, then Kaiser automatically covers it. My treatment is as you described, except I do not have CT scans of chest and pelvis. I did have a chest CT shortly after I had the CCR but...

Great news lakeswim!!! You now have options available, and that's exactly what you wanted from the second opinion. Do take some time to absorb all the new info, I know it can take a few days to go over what the Drs were saying, and figure out exactly what they meant in layman's terms! The Drs on my ...