Lydia666 wrote:I just wanted to say that surgery was not too bad for me despite the temporary ileostomy- and i would even take a permanent one if it means I live. Chemo is worse. I am only doing Xeloda and it's not a joy- but doable. However i'd take surgery over months of aggressive chemo! That's my opinion- but i know there is someone on here who really did not want to have surgery and they are still ok.
Sams wife wrote:Stage II. Surgeon wanted surgery. Husband didn't. Oncologist said yes! Do surgery. He's had 4 people it came back on with stage 2. He did it, hubby's not to happy about it (ostomy) but it was a good decision. Microscopic cells were still there.
Good luck
Nica432 wrote:Thank you! This is what I need to hear to help me to decide whether to go with surgery or not.
Nica432 wrote:Lydia666 wrote:I just wanted to say that surgery was not too bad for me despite the temporary ileostomy- and i would even take a permanent one if it means I live. Chemo is worse. I am only doing Xeloda and it's not a joy- but doable. However i'd take surgery over months of aggressive chemo! That's my opinion- but i know there is someone on here who really did not want to have surgery and they are still ok.
Thank you, Lydia. What has been the hardest part of the surgery for you?
Do you know for sure you want have a permanent colostomy?
PRS wrote:Nica432 wrote:Thank you! This is what I need to hear to help me to decide whether to go with surgery or not.
Let me repeat; you can't decide until you know how your tumor reacted to the chemoradiation, and you will not know this until 8-10 weeks after your radiation treatment is finished. Trying to go thru all the options now may be stressing you out when what you really need to do is focus your attention on helping your Doctors make your chemoradiation treatment as successful as possible. You have a couple of months after radiation is complete to do your research before any decision might have to be made.
To sum up: if any of the tumor remains then surgery will be required, the type of surgery will depend upon how much of the tumor remains and exactly where the remains are located. Your board certified colorectal surgeon will make this decision, so make sure you have a good one that you trust. Only If the tumor is completely gone will you have a decision to make, and again this decision will be made with the help of your surgeon.
If you are not too sure about your current surgeon there will be plenty of time after radiation is complete to go find another.
PainInTheAss wrote:Keep in mind that a clinical complete response is only as far as they can tell. If the biposies they take miss trace cancer cells actually still there, you will be told you have a complete response when you actually don't. That's what they are watching and seeing... if they actually got it all.
I've seen stage IIa's successfully do wait and see, but just be aware that a different stage has significant risk differences.
When you are first diagnosed and first going through treatment, you tend to think in terms of how your life will change. You want it to change as little as possible. I, too, didn't want a permanent colostomy and found myself bargaining with my surgeon about it. He finally said to me, "This is about saving your life." When it really sunk in that the cancer could kill me, I wanted everything out. I want to still be around decades from now to complain about how treatment changed my life. I want to have a life period.
Here are two blogs I read from beginning to end that really drove the seriousness of this home. One of them did the "watch and see" and later regreted it, especially since he did not do well on chemo and would have handled the surgery much better.
http://imsorryforcursing.blogspot.com
http://www.teachingcancertocry.com
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