Hi Jolene, thank you for the kind words! This June was actually my sixth year since CCR. I skipped my five year anniversary check up last year because it would have meant a trip into Los Angeles. The city was knee deep in Covid at the time! My Doctor still wants me to go in for annual check ups. I t...
I would be concerned about taking this relaxed an approach. The standard in most practices is 90 days. Even so, some studies show that recurrences happen in 15%+ percent of cases. Approximately 85% of these are “salvageable,” but the earlier they are caught, the better—there is less risk of an unsa...
Hi all, I wanted to check in. Sorry, Peter (prs) for not responding sooner. I don’t get notifications and don’t check in as often. DH just crossed the 2 year mark from the time of diagnosis. His last treatment, 1 week course of radiation, was in late July 2020 - more than a year ago. He was getting...
Oh my, I haven't been on here in at least a year but just received a rare email notification (not sure why I don't get them more often) that you posted and what a time to pop in and see this first thing. CONGRATULATIONS, PRS! This is truly AMAZING to read! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. ...
I had missed my five year follow up exam last year because of Covid, so drove to LA for my six year anniversary follow up last week. The flex-sig and MRI results were both very good. My surgeon said she now considered my CCR as permanent. :D :D :D In our chat afterwards I mentioned I had read that s...
Hi Ismail, Jolene is giving you great advice! I notice your tumor is very low just like mine. In fact the lower part of my tumor was into the sphincter muscles. My surgeon told me that if she had to do any cutting that involved the sphincter muscles it would likely have a major impact on my quality ...
Hi James, mop-up chemo does work. To my recollection all the successful W&Wers who have contributed to this thread did have the chemo. I'm also fairly sure all those who unfortunately did have either a recurrence or a metastasis did not have the chemo. There is some discussion in this thread abo...
I was diagnosed with a very low tumor my doctor told me about this procedure because I didn’t want to get the colonstomy procedure done, so we did radio therapy along with xeloda 7 pills per day on radiation days they gave me 28 sessions of radio the tumor slowly died 3 months later it was complete...
There was so much sad news when I came here in August 2019 when DH had his colonoscopy. The long term NED posts made me envious, but gave me hope. The last treatment was late July 2020. It was a 5 day radiation session that covered the entire affected area (low rectal). The last of twelve FOLFOX in...
I'm officially 2 years in the clear. Yay! All came out clear for MRI/ CT / Flex scope / Biopsy / Blood test ! It has been tough and I'm exhausted but it's another year closer to the 5 year mark! White blood cell count is low though which is strange, probably a side effect of all the chemo and radia...
Thank you PRS for your encouraging and supportive words. As my anxiety tablets were finishing soon, I checked in with a general doctor wondering if he could prescribe me some more to help overcome random panic attacks. He said it is not uncommon to experience post-traumatic stress for cancer surviv...
Hi Jolene, I too am keeping my fingers crossed for you, and will be very happy when you hit that two year milestone in January! Hopefully that will help take some of the stress out of your mind, knowing the chance of a recurrence continues to decrease. This pandemic for sure isn't helping any of us ...
Figured I’d update this group (that I keep trying with all my might to join): WARNING: I’m going to try to keep this post lighter — unlike my usual overly loquacious and sober posts — in part to keep the ol’ chin up, but it involves lots of references to a number of distressing bodily functions, so...
roadrunner, if I remember correctly there is discussion of these procedures in this thread. You'll likely have to read thru the entire thread to find them.
If those posts don't give you enough, you could try private messaging those contributors for more info.