Hi Jess
I am so sorry you are having to go through this with your Father,I am from the Uk originally and lost my father to cancer 23 years ago.
I think treatment has come a long way since then and it wasn't colon cancer he had, not meaning to scare you, just to let you know I can relate to the feelings you are experiencing right now
Read and research as much as you can, this forum in particular has been incredibly useful to me and my husband on our journey
I know that you have less choice over who you see in terms of oncology if you are using the NHS over there, but from what I have read of other Uk colon cancer patients on this board, the care there is very much the same as it is here in the US.
Chemotherapy sounds terrifying and it is pretty sucky but certainly doable. Keeping hydrated helps, so water and lucozade (if they still have that over there ?)
and gentle exercise if he feels up to .
You'll have to find out what he feels like eating as you go along, things can taste differently , My husband has cravings for some odd things, we just go with whatever he feels like eating, being able to eat is good
Those are just a few things off the top of my head, most importantly use this forum, it's full of great information and best wishes to you and your Dad.
Melissa- I'm glad to hear that the CEA has dropped down, we have had problems with low neutrophils 2 or 3 times now, once we had to miss a weeks treatment and then the next time our onc said he would take a risk and do the chemo anyway. Are you doing neupogen injections? they are very effective
It seems that I can't private message you either, I think we both must still be too new to the forum
In a nutshell I feel that what we discussed at MSK could quite easily have been done over the phone and saved a lot of time and money. They said husband was eligible for the clinical trial we were interested in but that it would involve traveling to NY for infusions every week which is just not practical and they also said as the chemo he is currently on is working to stick with it????????
I felt like we only really had the opportunity to ask one question and that was about the clinical trial, nothing else was discussed. So like yourself we are still researching other options.
What is so frustrating is that he has only a few tumors and they are small but becasue they are in more than one place, no one will touch them surgically