I've now finished off a lot of follow-up consultations and visits in the last couple of weeks, consisting of a completion colonoscopy (as the first one could not be completed due to the partial obstruction caused by the large tumour), more blood-work (CEA is now <1.0!!) and visits with both radiatio...

I'll be thinking of you on the 18th, Mike! I just got an appointment for the 21st of April, and while my decision for getting treatments now is still pending, that would be the day I'd be starting if..
Stay strong!

All the best starting out with the chemo, Mike - I pray for all to be well too. Which chemo and what dosages are you starting on? I'm really fatigued today, that never helps the waiting game.. still, i'm staying confident in my conservative approach - but appreciated your words about you feeling dif...

Hi Nomoretacos, Not sure if this is any real consolation to you but I had an open LAR on Feb 10th - and have still not met with an oncologist :shock: I am scheduled for my first appointments with oncology only next week (week of Apr 11) - making it just over two months. My CRC has not even been full...

Hey WriterGirl, I am so happy that you have had your LAR behind you, and that you seem to be recovering well from the surgery. FYI it took me ~10 days after surgery to get the pathology report.. I just wanted to share my experience regarding 'mass size', I had a pretty large tumor measuring 11.5x4.2...

Indeed.. choices and decisions are hard. I suppose I am a little stumped at my surgeon's guidance that he may have not even considered my post-OP referral to oncology had those pesky little isolated tumor cells not been identified.. however, with his black and white attitude (either the node is posi...

Hey Mariane, Thanks for posting this. I am constantly looking for supporting my condition with better/best nutritional support. While one would somehow intuitively think that coffee is actually not that good for you, it turns out that there has been some (limited but positive) evidence to the contra...

Thank you, Steph! What a great sounding initiative by Contextual Genomics and the Canadian National Access Program Cancer Genomics Test, especially as it may be free (albeit for only the first 1,500)! :o I have just sent off a note to my oncology team asking them to take a look and see if they can r...

Macpudd - I am so glad to hear that you are NED after 18 months, that is wonderful. Thank you for sharing, and I will focus on a positive outcome for me too! I think my main issue lies in the fact that with only one of 34 lymphs deemed to contain isolated tumor cells yet not be 'invaded, (and this i...

Hey Macpudd - thank you, and yes, it does sound very similar. I see from your signature that you had a CEA of 1.6 pre-OP - I was at 1.3 pre-OP, still waiting for a post-OP reading, so maybe that is a further similarity.

My surgeon seemed not to have much knowledge or experience with it either! He felt that the pathology team had been extremely thorough, and I am grateful for that. He indicated that 34 lymph nodes was a good thing. He had a fairly binary view of i+ (aka 'isolated tumor cells') though, as in "ei...

Hello Dear Board Members, I am a 39 yo Female, diagnosed with CRC on Jan 12, 2016. Symptoms were rectal bleeding and major discomfort - colonscopy revealed a near obstructing mass in rectosigmoid, adenocarcinoma, invasive. CT showed no distant mets. Open LAR was performed on Feb 10, 2016. 23.5cm of ...