Delighted to have found this site!

[kpbruinfan]

Hello all,

My name is Ed and I was dignosed with stage IV cancer in July of this year. I had a successful surgery to remove the tumor from my colon and found just afterward that it had spread to my liver. I will begin chemotherapy on September 26 and as long as it works, I will undergo a second surgery to remove the damaged portions of liver sometime after New Year's.

I was surprised to learn that the majority of diagnoses in this type of disease occur in people over the age of 50. I am 37 and was quite shocked after the colonoscopy revealed it.

Most of the time my oncologist has been very dire in terms of his description of my prognosis - and that, by far, has been the most difficult portion of this challenge to date. I would simply like to hear good news instead of "maybe" and "hopeful". I am, however, looking forward to working with him and his team. They are honest, thorough, and caring and that's all I can ask for.

I am married and have a 3-year-old daughter who have been extremely supportive. Fortunately my wife sees the positives in situations whereas I see negatives. Now that a plan is in place I am eager to begin treatment and fight back against this dreadful disease. I am fortunate that I have close family and my personal faith to support me.

My deepest regret at this time is that I have no advice to offer others posting here, no words of sage wisdom that comes only with time and experience. I really hope I can help someone else in their moving forward when that time arrives. Until a cure is found support networks like these are so critically important.

My prayers and best thoughts to all,

Ed

[missjv]

hi ed,
welcome glad you found this site it is most helpful and very encouraging the veteren cc survivors are wonderful and holly is very knowledgeable and helpful im sure you will here from her she is a stage 4 survivor of 3 years with no evidence of disease and erika is a stage 4 survivor of 5 years with no evidence of disease and there are many others so do not give up hope or give into negative talk by doctors. i am 39 female just diagnosed with stage 4 cc in june from a polyp that was 1 1/2 mm in size hardly a large tumor and i was considered stage 1 with polypectomy. long story short had a ct scan and liver lesions popped up, so had pet scan and it showed 3 hot spots 1.3 to 2.4 cm in size so wow here i am no symptoms no sickness feeling great and now i have stage 4 cancer, had myself a crying fit and a 2 day pity party with many rum and cokes which i shouldn't have done ooops! day 3 i said heck with this 3 liver lesions are not going to kill me im young, healthy i have a 7 year old daughter and lots of stuff i want to do. my 1st trip to onco was horrible she stated i had 1 year to live with no treatment and 2 years with treatment and she will put me on supportive care of chemo to make my quality of life better?????????? i said what the heck my quality of life is great i feel great i look great. so i said bye to her and went to large cancer center where they said i really can't be placed in any statistic because my case is very odd and the 2 year thing highly unlikely. 1st doc never even mentioned liver resection or rfa i did alot of research on my own and thankfully found sloan kettering in new york where i will have my surgery to cut off my little spots which by the way after 4 chemos have shrunk a great deal one is not visible anymore and the other 2 got smaller so i responded to chemo which is a great sign and am now considered for curative surgery and more chemo after surgery to try to get any little micro cancers still floating around all my lymphnodes were clear which also helps i guess. anyways keep the faith and a great attitude listen to your wife i know it is tough. also for chemo drink alot of water you want to flush it from your system i was told by my chemo nurse that 70% goes to the cancer and 30% stays floating around you want that out of your body as chemo will attack normal healthy dividing cells and flushing your system will help to ease side effects. good luck on your 1st chemo and keep us posted on your fight, it really helped me to find this message board where there are others fighting the same battle we can all keep each other smiling and everyone says prayers for everyone else which divine intervention is probably what will help us the most. good luck!

missjv