Newbie

[cbownds]

Hello everyone! Just wanted to tell a little of my story and maybe get some advice about life after chemo. I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at the age of 19. I went to the ER 3 times with stomach pains until the finally found the blockage in my colon. I had a colonoscopy and then was told I had cancer. They removed part of my colon and I awoke to a leg that no longer worked because they hit a nerve and a big line of staples down my stomach. I went home about a week later and that night I had a terrible fever and ended up back at the hospital. Come to find out the connection they had done did not work so I was opened up again stuffed full of gauze and kept open for 2 days in ICU then had another surgery to close me up. This time I ended up with an ileostomy because my colon was swollen from the infection of the rupturing of the connection and the worst part was the wound vac because my skin does not form together right. The changes of the wound vac were not fun because tape really likes my skin but I did have a great nurse. After about another few weeks in the hospital I went home right before my 20 birthday. Due to the wound vac I couldn't start chemo for about a month. I was quickly taken off the Oxalyplatin because of terrible side effects (I could only have hot drinks chemo weeks and room temperature drinks on off weeks, was losing my hair, and it did a number on my white blood cell count which I had to have terrible shots to fix). Now I finish my last chemo on April 11 and then will go back a month later for scans then have a reversal surgery. It has been a trying time but has only made me a stronger person. I am glad to be doing Relay for Life in May and then go on with my life and hopefully do a little here and there to give back to other cancer patients because I know a lot of volunteers helped me. Any advice about life after chemo would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my post!

[crabbymonty]

I am sorry to hear about what has happened. Sure seems like you got to try out a little bit of everything during your experiences so far. The good news is it should only get better from here, so hang in there.

[SkiFletch]

Whoa, you've certainly been through the ringer there... Glad to hear things are settling out for you with the ending of chemo. Hope your takedown surgery is a better experience than your first attempt. Hopefully you'll rebound quickly from the chemo since you're even younger than me and I found it to only take about a month to feel pretty normal again after chemo was over. Close to a year now since chemo was over for me and it's really just a bad memory, but even that is fading away. Good luck and we look forward to sharing with you.

[jjlist]

ouch,,,, it can only get better from here. postive vibes for a sucessful reversal. I think you will do great. you have youth on your side.

[John72]

Maybe I'm missing something about the oxi.....

I had to microwave even water for the first several days after oxi and also had low WBC counts where my dose of oxi had to be reduced(but no shots even though I was borderline each round). So I don't understand why you were taken off of it.....

[cbownds]

I was taken off because it was just wrecking my body. I couldn't get out of bed and even when we lowered the dose as low as it could go I was still having all the horrible side effects and even had to miss chemo a few times. If I would've been able to function normally (like getting out of bed) he would have kept me on it but we both agreed the side effects were not worth the positive things about oxi.