Hi everyone,
My husband has been diagnosed with rectal cancer over the Christmas Holidays. I'm not gonna lie to you it was a complete shock. He is a very healthy and active 28 year old young man. We have a beautiful 2 year old daugter and 2nd baby coming in June.
We live in Edmonton, Alberta and are extremily lucky we got in with the best colorectal surgeon in the province. We met with him last Monday and the good news is that the cancer hasn't spread anywhere, it's T2N1M0 from my understanding it's stage 2? Anyways when he first saw the reports from the colonoscopy, MRI Etc, he said the tumor is low in the rectum, he will most likely need a permanant stoma. But after he actually physically examined him and felt the tumor he said that it's higher and smaller than what the reports said and there might be a chance he will not need a permenant bag (about 20%). He will go for 6 weeks of intensive chemoradiation 6 days/week and surgery most likely 6-8 weeks after that. The doctor said if we has a good response from the treatment and if the surgery goes exacly as planned he might be able to "reattach" everything together.
Anyways, I would like to hear from ppl who went through someting similar. I am just looking for some kind of advice, reassurance or just hear your story.
Thank you!!