Wow, as if having cancer doesn't put you on a roller coaster of emotions as it is, you really got a mental workout these past few days. I am so very sorry you have already had to experience so much emotionally and the "fun" hasn't even started yet. Well, easier said than done, but take a d...

Welcome to the club nobody ever wants to join, but you will find some of the best people and advice around with regards to colorectal cancer. Yeah, waiting totally sucks and it's amazing how the brain can so easily derail your thoughts to cancer, cancer, cancer. I imagine it is how we all felt after...

Yay for you MDK--you made it to the other side of surgery! Glad to hear you are recovering well physically and the mental adjustment to an Ostomy takes some time so you sound about normal on that front! I am six months out and I feel better about it, but not going to say I love it--I still need a lo...

Could not agree more with everything everyone has said! I check on here at least once a day--even though we have never met face to face you all feel family like to me and I look for your updates to make sure all of my peeps are doing ok and hanging in there, even through the suckiest of times. Thank...

As for staying hydrated, I think I do pretty well on that front. A few days before infusion, I'll drink coconut water and I usually drink a Propel water the day of, in addition to lots of regular water. I've also been using one of those infuser bottles, adding lemon wedges or cucumber slices. Oddly...

I am so feeling for you--have been exactly where you are now wondering how I would finish all of my (eight) rounds of chemo, so I would imagine twelve rounds really are looking daunting. I was told by my onc I needed to do eight rounds which they equate to four months and when added to the xeloda I ...

Awww, sorry to hear the worry and fear of chemo in your post. Had to be tough when the doctor thought your results would be fine and then came back that there was lymph node involvement, sorry. Well, I am a month out from completing 8 rounds of Folfox and I would describe it as miserable, but tolera...

Count me in the APR club! Yeah, it's by no means what anyone wants to have, but I am six months out and doing fairly well. Just went to the pool for the first time yesterday with the colostomy pouch--was a big mental milestone for me that no one else would know about. Every time you hit a milestone ...

(I wish I was tech savvy and could figure out how you people do quotes, but not there yet!) Nik--you have helped probably hundreds I am willing to bet! Not a day goes by where you aren't offering support and advice that is sound and helpful. No doubt your emotions are up and down like a roller coast...

CLD--everything you wrote is completely on target emotionally given what your husband and your family has been through the past year and a half. I too always have that thought in my mind with regard to "what if it comes back", but I do my best to try to keep moving forward as well and embr...

Loved this post Writergirl as I just had a birthday two weeks ago and didn't quite know what to make of it myself. I can so relate to the "what would you like for your birthday" question--my 14 year old asked the same and of course the mind goes straight to "the ability to be cancer f...

Hey-I don't mean to go off topic (sorry-not a long term member and while I do not know Kenny, based on this thread I think I would absolutely enjoy his voice on here!), but Nik, it was your last post about the roller coaster emotions that got me. I can 100% relate and that is why I come to Colon Tal...

Hi JesseJ-- I also don't want to advocate the no chemo route just because I truly feel cancer is something you don't fool around with, but at the end of the day that is a decision for your mom to make. What really caught my eye in your post was the tail end regarding help for a permanent colostomy. ...

I met with a genetic counselor today as my rectal cancer diagnosis came out of no where in my family health history plus my earlier age onset. At any rate, as I was sitting there and discussing with her what I knew, it really hit me how much I have learned and how basically I owe it all to my daily ...

Hey there--I can sort of relate. Let me tell you my story and then you can perhaps think it over and see if any of it applies to you. Literally one month after my APR surgery I felt almost like a muscle pull in my left groin area. I like to walk so I didn't attribute it to anything major, just norma...