The Colon Club

Just to encourage all who are starting out with a stage 4 diagnosis.
Mum scanned well and has now entered her ninth year since diagnosis.
The first few years were rough but her quality of life is good .
Hope is gives a little light to some on this path.
Stu

Great news Stu!
It is always good to read such great news on the Colon Talk community forum.
America sends your Mum warm thoughts and heartfelt wishes for continued good health and success!
WS

Wonderful news! Wishing her many more years! I can only hope!

That is great news, Stu! It is so encouraging for those of us settling into this NED thing. Hope for many more years!

Dave

Cheers Stu
Give Mum a hug from all of us
and one for you, too !!

Harmony
CRguy

This is such great news, stu!

All the best to you and your mum.

That is great news! Hope goes a long ways toward brightening someone's day. Thank you for sharing. We all celebrate every victory.

Hello ,
Thank you so much for your good wishes .
My mum was so touched by them . She sincerely hoped it encourages people to press on and seek out windows of opportunity.
Much love to you all Stu

As of yesterday, it seems that my diagnosis might be landing at Stage IV as well.

I woke up this morning and remembered and my chest lit up with panic and fear. My spreading, if/when confirmed Cancer is also just to the liver- for now.

I see that your Mom got a liver resection.

I have only spoken to a radiologist so far about about the possible spreading, but he made it sound like they would press with FOLFOX and then biopsy later.

I wonder whether we should be doing something more aggressive now?

Give your mum a big hug for me!! I don't know how old was she when she was diagnosed and the details of her journey but everytime I read your signature I find hope!

Everytime I get told when people met to somewhere else outside of liver, prognosis dims a lot ... i would get so frustrated.... Then I would read your signature and felt better.

Thank you!!! And best wishes to her being NED forever!!!

Hi Janet ,
Really sorry to hear you require more treatment . Mum went straight to chemo and it was a good plan . It allowed strinkage to occur and pulled in any stray cells . After surgery she did not have any chemo which is where our countries may differ in approach .
Back in 2009 there truely were not the options available for treatment that there are now . I wish you did not have more treatment to face but wish you the very best . Getting a specialist team on board with wise decisions and good clinical judgements was a game changer for mum .
You have many options open to you so take the time you need to seek the best approach .
Once a plan was in place mum felt a lot better .
Take care ,
Stu

Hi Lovelife ,
The photo is for you with mum’s permission. She was 67 at diagnosis but very fit . She is 76 in the photo and as you can see is keeping well . Sometimes she makes me laugh as it turns out you can do a lot despite missing several parts of your major organs . She has some impairment from chemo but it’s just accepted and dealt with.
The first couple of years were challenging as most of the surgeries and chemo were carried out in that time frame .
The thought of the lung met was so much worse than the reality of it for mum and it really was the easiest process for her to date .
She has two nodules which stay static and have no uptake in a PET scan since 2014 . One is 7mm !! But does not seem to be cancer . She is now on yearly scans .
Her oncology team are really positive with her and think she does best with just surgery . Bit of quality of life at this stage too . In the beginning it was all negative language, half way through it turned to “ doing well” and now they are all fully on board with her approach .
They have been such a blessing in the whole process .
Looking forward to hearing more good news from your signature line.

Hi Stu
Good to see the photo of your Mum and glad she is doing so well. May she continue to be a beacon of hope to you, and to others, including myself on this board.
Kiwi

Thank you Stu! Thats wonderful news!