First a question. were you diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer? The reason I ask is that the treatments are different. If you were a stage IIA rectal cancer patient, then you would have most likely done neoadjuvant chemoradiation and that would add another dimension to the dilemma. I am sure that ...

I need some opinions. When I was diagnosed, my GP ran the first CEA on me. That was end of June '06. At that time, my CEA was 0.5. I had my next one done on 10/13/2006 at my onc's office and it was 1.0 I had finished radiation by then and was in between treatments at that time. Chemoradiation had fi...

Hi, I could use some info/help from anyone out there. A friend of mine has a son who was having some rectal bleeding & cramps. She talked with me about what to do because I had been diagnosed last year with rectal cancer. Because the young man was only 22, I said I doubted he had cancer, but to ...

Hi, My hair thinned some-usually just on the top while I was on chemo. Most people really couldn't tell or were just too polite to say anything. Mine was always thin to begin with but to me it just became a little more noticable. Anyway, my hairdresser, Joanna, gave me some stuff to help. It's put o...

I can only address a few of your issues. Since I had oral 5FU I have no idea about the pump timing. However, I did do one cycle of oxaliplatin. I say only one because of the horrible side effects I had. These started while I was still being infused. Not only did I get the feeling of glass in my thro...

Ruth, I don't know about that particular pill, but when I was on radiation, I took something for irritable bowel which was just lactobacillus. I did it because the radiation was killing all the good bacteria & I was getting diarrhea from it. After I started, I hardly had any diarrhea. The normal...

Hi again, I went through 5 weeks of Xeloda and radiation and had similar symptoms but not so severe. I think that she is smart not to continue with any treatment until she figures out what is going on. Xeloda & radiation can give you diarrhea and gas and it is not at all uncommon for symptoms li...

Hi there. I never experienced anything like what you are talking about. First of all, are you sure it was stage I? Campostar is only approved for colonrectal cancer that has spread and only in conjuction with infused 5FU. That would be a stage IV cancer. Also, stage I is not recommended for radiatio...

Hello, I wanted to put in my two cents. After reading the article, I tracked down and spoke with Gail Smith yesterday for a good long time. As I thought, he had rectal cancer and did not want to have an APR with colostomy. He had the 5-6 weeks of chemoradiation followed by a transanal excision. I sp...