I'm a new member here.

[Charityblanco]

I am new here. It's my mom inlaw mentioned to me about this Club since she and I were looking around before to find any group and finally she found it for me.

My heart is pounding when I first got here and reading the newsfeed about "passing away".
Scared me to death.

Anyway,my name is Charity. I am going to be 35 years old this nov. I am married and have 2 wonderful babies-4 years old daughter and 2 months old son.

I am diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer last june. My gyn-oncologist caught it right after i gave birth last june 15,2015. She did total hysterectomy after i gave birth and she caught that colon mass. She cut it off and reconnect my colon. It came out cancer and from then ,we found out that my primary cancer is colon canicer that metastasized to my right ovary then we found out it also metastasized in my liver.

My life is so rough eversince I got sick.
I am filipina from philippines. I came here in USA in 2009.
I never been a sickly person even when I was still in my country. I don't have cancer in Philippines..now that I am here in USA,I have cancer. Eversince I came here,this was my very first time going back and forth to my doctors.

Anyway,I am so grateful i got pregnant. I wouldnt knoe i have had ovarian cancer. I am diagnosed with ovarian cancer stage 1,poorly differentiated last dec 29,2014 when I was 14 weeks pregnant. 6th time going back and forth to the ER until they found out that mass in my right ovary. I need.to have chemo while pregnanthe since my cancer was agressive type. I started my chemo (carboplatin and taxol) when I was 21 weeks pregnant.
They stop on my 5th cycle to deliver my baby at 37 weeks and supposed to continue the last 6th cycle but they discontinue it when they caught about colon cancer. So,I had to start another set of chemo for colon for 6 months every 2 weeks. So far,I have 4 more months to go to finish the 6 months. I am going to have a surgery this oct for my liver. So it's like 3 months chemo then surgery then another 3 months chemo.

When I was pregnant while on chemo,my WBC was like 15 or 13 and now that I'm not preggo anymore,my WBC dived! Last monday it was 3.7
My pregnancy helped my WBC alot.

[midlifemom]

Charity,
Welcome to our club. Thanks for introducing yourself. If you have any questions, just shout out. There will most likely be someone here who has been through it before.
In the meantime, give lots of love and hugs to those babies of yours.

[PainInTheAss]

Welcome to the club!

I'm so sorry you're going through this. That really must be rough recovering from pregnancy and surgery, doing chemo, caring for a newborn and taking care of you daughter. That is a lot to handle all at once.

Many here have had mets in the liver and can share their experiences which can give you a lot of hope. Some had their doctors say there wasn't much they could do and they found other doctors who were able to help them shrink their liver tumors so they could have surgery, which is the best chance for a cure. If you can give more details about your liver mets, how many and the sizes and what your doctor's treatment plan is for your liver, you can get some helpful feedback about that.

[DarknessEmbraced]

Welcome Charity. Sorry that you have had so much trouble!*hugs* You will find lots of support and knowledge here!

[plastikos]

Hello kababayan Charity. Sorry to hear about your illness. But you will find a lot of support in the form of encouragement as well as information on this forum. Hang in there.

[juliekei]

Your story is all too familiar.. I was diagnosed five days after giving birth to my son via c-section and my daughter was 20 months at the time. It has been a challenging road but I am still here 5 years later! Please do not hesitate to send me a personal message if you have any questions or want to just vent. It was not easy to handle surgeries and chemo while raising young children but I learned to lean on my husband, friends and family and my children are thriving. I wish you much love and strength. You can do this!

[mom_2_3]

Charity,

My own Stage IV colon cancer was discovered during my last c-section. After the baby was delivered the attending OB felt around the uterine area and discovered a swollen lymph node that was promptly biopsied and found positive for colon cancer. A scan a few days later determined I had 5 liver mets across my liver. That was almost 7 years ago and after 1 year of surgeries and treatments I have been in remission for more than 6 years. Please PM me if you have any questions but I just wanted to write a quick note to you to let you know that you can do it. It's not easy but I managed with assistance from my family and the love and support of many friends and neighbors.

All the best to you,
Amy

[Charityblanco]

Charity,

My own Stage IV colon cancer was discovered during my last c-section. After the baby was delivered the attending OB felt around the uterine area and discovered a swollen lymph node that was promptly biopsied and found positive for colon cancer. A scan a few days later determined I had 5 liver mets across my liver. That was almost 7 years ago and after 1 year of surgeries and treatments I have been in remission for more than 6 years. Please PM me if you have any questions but I just wanted to write a quick note to you to let you know that you can do it. It's not easy but I managed with assistance from my family and the love and support of many friends and neighbors.

All the best to you,
Amy

Hi,thanks for your comment. It's a bit relief.....
I'm freaking don't like the word DEATH esp that I have my babies. I wanna raise them up and do my job as a monmy .please advice me about foods...
What remedies or whatsoever you are taking while on chemo.
Any strict diet? Any DONT's? To eat
And.what's best to eat?

I cut off my soda since dec 2014. I used to be a soda addict. I.maybe drank soda awhile back like less than half of the plastic cup.
I cut off my chocolates. Maybe I ate chocolates but once in a blue moon and just bites.not the whole chocolates.
I put drops of honey in my hot tea.
I put nestle creamier in my coffee and I put stevia sugar in my oatmeal.

[Nik Colon]

First, I don't think you got it from moving here. Sorry you have this. Stage 4 does not mean a death sentence first of all. Just take it day by day and try not to think the worst. I was stage 4 and now NED, well as far as I know now til next CT. No amount of worry will change so all you can do is think good. Best wishes

[Charityblanco]

I forgot how to write new post about me coz i have some questions to ask.

[Momto5boyz]

Hi,
Welcome to the board. So sorry about what your going through. When times are tough snuggle those babies close. You've so much to fight for.
Fight On!

[mom_2_3]

Hi,thanks for your comment. It's a bit relief.....
I'm freaking don't like the word DEATH esp that I have my babies. I wanna raise them up and do my job as a monmy .please advice me about foods...
What remedies or whatsoever you are taking while on chemo.
Any strict diet? Any DONT's? To eat
And.what's best to eat?

I cut off my soda since dec 2014. I used to be a soda addict. I.maybe drank soda awhile back like less than half of the plastic cup.
I cut off my chocolates. Maybe I ate chocolates but once in a blue moon and just bites.not the whole chocolates.
I put drops of honey in my hot tea.
I put nestle creamier in my coffee and I put stevia sugar in my oatmeal.

Charity,

When first diagnosed I did begin a strict regimen of juicing (apple/cucumber/carrot/celery base with other items like turmeric, lemons, kale, red cabbage, red grapes, etc). I also avoided sugar. I don't believe that following a strict diet like I did had an impact on my cancer. The surgeries and chemotherapy are what brought me to remission. The diet, however, gave me a sense of control in an environment where I felt completely out of control. I have been a planner since I was a child and at the time of diagnosis all my planning ended. At that point I used diet as a way of challenging myself mentally and this helped my psyche tremendously. Now, years later I eat a sensible diet and I do try and moderate my sugar intake. I will have a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream when I want but I try and follow my husband's diet of strict moderation Sunday night-Thursday night and eating what I really love on Friday and Saturday. It seems to work for me.

My oncologist told me that one thing I could do to avoid recurrence was to exercise and I do so usually 6 days per week. In fact tonight I got on the treadmill at 10:00 pm because that's when I was able to get to it. I try not to miss it. There were studies that showed that Stage III patients who exercised had less recurrences and I apply that data to my own situation. And, exercise makes me feel like I have a modicum of control in my life.

More than anything, the key to my NED was finding the best doctor and facility I could for treatment. Luckily I live in NJ and my husband's cousin is a gastro doctor and acquaintances with one of the pre-eminent colon cancer doctors in the country. She practices at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC and it is her care and her pioneering of a device called the HAI pump (google "hepatic aerial infusion pump") that I believe is what truly has been critical to my health. Used after liver surgery (in my case), the HAI delivers concentrated chemotherapy to the liver. Because the chemo is so concentrated at the liver it has a very beneficial effect in reducing recurrences for those patients with liver-specific disease. Seeing as you will be having the liver resection this coming October you are in a better position than many who have liver mets but are never operable.

In addition to my fantastic oncologist I was blessed to have the surgical care from two well-regarded surgeons (liver and colon surgeons who each did their own part in my 7-8 hour operation). I recall reading somewhere that the surgeon is the one that makes all the difference in an outcome and I can believe that. Seeing as you are scheduled for resection I would highly recommend that your surgeon be specialized in liver resections. Please ensure that he/she is a hepatobilliary surgeon. I had one general oncological surgeon tell me he could remove my liver mets and that he does at least 4-5 of them per year. My doctor at MSK does on the order of 200 liver surgeries per year. There was no question who I wanted operating on my liver.

Let me know if you have further questions Charity or you can email me here via the board.

All the best,
Amy