Thanks for the supportive words, Margot. This board is great - lots of survivors with words of hope and lots of people who are similar to me in terms of age and diagnosis. It's so nice to have support from people who truly know what I'm going through.
I agree that it's wonderful to have a good surgeon. My rectal surgeon was top notch. He's the one who first diagnosed me after four months of being turned away by my internist and gynocologist. He listened and found the cancer immediately. He was honest and very kind. Within a week he had me lined up for radiation and chemo and ready to start treatment as soon as the new year started. I trusted him completely to operate on me - that is so good for the phsyche. Unfortunately, the liver metatstasis was outside his scope of knowledge and so he pretty much handed me back to my oncologist.
I feel blessed to have found my new surgeon. He's very kind and open and honest. I have let my rectal surgeon know about him in hopes that the next person like me will get better and faster advice. Knowledge is a very powerful thing. These days it seems my job to spread it around whenever possible - if I can help even one person it is worth it!