I have not been treated at either but have seen the posting about Mayo and just wanted to pass along that I've heard there are big differences between Mayo in Minnesota and Mayo in Arizona (MN significanlty better than AZ). Just wanted to pass that along from people I know who have been treated at b...
Kimby - I also get those "But you look so good" remarks and I usually say "but I feel like S#@t!" - I want a t-shirt that sumas up that sentiment mixed with the fatigue.
Hi Mommymoose - I'm sorry you're haveing to go through all of this. I'll pass along a bit about my surgeries - just another person's perspective to share. We actually discovered my rectal cancer as a result of what we thought were digestive complications following a hysterectomy (uterus only) becaus...
www.cancer.org (The American Cancer Society), www.cancer.gov (National Cancer Institute), www.uoaa.org (United Ostomy Associations of America, and colonclub.com of course!
My oncologist has me take a multi-vitamin containing 400IU plus 2,000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily. He indicated to me that it is very important as part of the "preventing recurrence" plan of attack.
Hi Terry, I've had teeth pain too - mostly likely from the oxi because I had it when they gave me a bigger bolus of oxaliplatin to coordinate with the Xeloda cycles I'm on. I haven't had it since a change in my oxaliplatin cycle. I had some other troublesome side effects from the oxaliplatin so my o...
I have a friend battling the same cancer - neuroendocrine cancer that originated in the pancreas. It is a rare, slow growing cancer and usually has mets to the liver but is quite treatable with a liver transplant. Apparently as long as there are no mets other than to the liver and the person is othe...
I am on Xeloda now after having a bad reaction to the infusional 5FU (and I was on Xeloda for my neoadjuvant treatment). I have found that I actually have less diarrhea with the Xeloda than I did with the infusional 5FU (I ended up in the hospital severely dehydrated after the 5FU). I haven't had an...
Good luck and please do keep us posted! It will help all of us who will have take down surgeries in the future! Thinking of you and hope it all goes well.
My diagnosis is rectal cancer - treated as Stage 3. I had six weeks chemo and radiation neoadjuvantly. At first I thought my oncologist suggested six months of chemo adjuvantly. In my last discussion with him he said no, that the six weeks of chemo neoadjuvantly "counted" toward the total ...
Hello Belle and Chico, My surgeon talked with me about two different types of surgery options (J-pouch versus straight colo-anal anastomosis). He preferred the j-pouch because of the faster adaptation in most cases. Of course everyone is different and I haven't had my reversal surgery yet. He gave m...
I saw this thread before my surgery and didn't post anything but feel like I have some perspective now and can add to the conversation. Ostomies give us the option of life in many cases which of course we want. The other side of the equation though is that in fighting the cancer we want "our no...
Do you have a colonic j-pouch or a straight colo-anal anastomosis? I understand that it takes at least a year for the straight connections to "settled down." The different types of surgeries make a difference on the reversals and adaptation.