Hello from a new member

[AppleTree]

The best working RX for me against nausea was Ativan. Way cheaper than some of the earlier things they tried too. Plus they always put something in my IV too. I think it was a steroid, so maybe that helped too. I always got 2 hours of fluid on disconnect day AND the next 3 days. Fortunately I live fairly close to the hospital. I did all 12 rounds of Folfox. Diareah was/is a big problem...probably also due to the fact that I have no stoma. I get a monthly shot of Sandostatin plus take Lomotol. I was 150 last August. Now the scales will not budge off of 106. I am trying to gain weight, but it is hard.

[Stewsbetty]

Just a word of advice about the anti nausea meds. They don’t work as well if you wait until you are already feeling poorly. My chemo journey is over, thankfully, but I ended up in hospital 2x when things got out of control. When steady nausea or diarrhea kicks in you dehydrate very quickly and if you end up in hospital, you will lose weight! Staying on top of nausea meds might head off something like that.
Beth

[AlexMichelle]

Could you please explain why you needed chemo when doctor thought they removed everything and so many lymph nodes were clear? I had same cancer as you, some in upper rectum and muscle and yet was staged at 1b with no chemo recommended and concerned that maybe I should have had it. I had about 16 lymph nodes removed, so not as many as you. I have been feeling sick for a few months with nausea, constipation, feeling full, extreme fatigue. I had a CT scan where they did not see anything and I’m having another colonoscopy on and endoscopy Tuesday. My weight is down considerably and I just feel like there is something wrong. I will know more after the colonoscopy and endoscopy but your journey has been so much different than mine since you had chemotherapy and I was wondering as to why with clear lymph nodes and nothing in your liver you were staged so much higher than me and given chemo. In my case, I hope my oncologist made the right decision in my treatment.

[Jannine]

Others may be able to explain this better than me, but I will take a shot.

The main reason they recommended chemo for me is that in addition to my main tumor they found a "noncontiguous tumor deposit" nearby during surgery. This means that the cancer had spread locally and started a 2nd tumor that was not directly connected to the first, although it was not far from the main tumor. (Although it may be possible that this was an additional unrelated tumor; I'm not 100% clear on that, but I think it adds up to the same thing.) This 2nd tumor deposit essentially gets treated as if I had lymph node involvement, because it is evidence that local spreading is going on, even if it hasn't gotten to the lymph nodes. The language of the staging is pretty confusing to me but that's why I have that "pN1c" classification to my tumor; it's not technically lymph node involvement, but they treat it like it is.

My tumor was also stage 3 where yours was stage 2, so that's another difference. I am not sure if I would have been recommended chemo if I were stage 3 without that additional tumor deposit.

This page is pretty informative about the different kinds of tumor staging, with diagrams that I haven't seen elsewhere: https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/col ... cer/stages

Hope that helps! I hope you start feeling better soon. That is a long time to feel so bad. I had lost a lot of weight from not eating before my surgery, but at this point most of my discomfort seems to be from chemo.