Postby Jannine » Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:46 pm
I'm a little confused by your description; was the mass 3/4" wide? Or 3/4" distance from the anus, or 3/4" distance from the rectum, within the colon?
If it is colon cancer and not rectal cancer, your husband may be able to work much of the time he is in chemo (if chemo is needed). I had to take a few weeks off after surgery of course, but I've only needed to take 3 days off work for each FOLFOX chemo dose (every other week, with some of the bad days falling on the weekend). Everyone is different, of course, but FOLFOX chemo for colon cancer isn't as damaging to the body as some of the other chemo treatments out there, fortunately.
I had colon cancer that was very close to the rectum; they actually had to remove a small amount of my rectum in order to get clean margins in surgery. Fortunately they were able to stitch me back together just fine.
Here's hoping that you get good news from the tests, and that he recovers quickly. It helped me a lot, coming here and seeing how many people had gone through what I was going through, and come out the other side in good shape. You can do this!
Keep us posted on what you find out.
DX: sigmoid colon cancer 5/2018. 48 F
laparoscopic sigmoid resection (24 cm removed); no stoma.
7.5cm adenocarcinoma -- mod. diff.
1 noncontiguous tumor deposit removed; 0/31 lymph nodes
T3 pN1c M0
5/18 before surgery, CEA 11.2
6/18 began FOLFOX
7/18: CEA 1.9; added neulasta post infusion
9/18: CEA 2.8
10/18: 25% chemo reduction
11/18: CEA 1.8
7/19 CT scan clear