I hope yours comes back clear! I went in for my appointment 2 months ago when i decided to get back to "normal" health screening and I ended up with an in situ/stage 0. It is fully excised, and "no big deal" compared to stage iv colorectal according to my derm. But still, insult ...

My onc called it my surgery date, but I drew from the conversation that was because that was my first point of "no evidence of disease" not inherently because it was surgery - he said that was my official point of being declared NED "suggested clinically, and confirmed pathologically....

jij , that's good, that you are MSI! :) Since you seem to have a proactive onc, I'd dare to comment on this. For your signature, I get that you're doing Folfox being NED? If that's the case, maybe you could ask your onc about if this is necessary --he is, indeed, following the present guidelines of...

Yes! This is the article/news that my onc has been saying has been coming for a few months. I'm glad that they finally released it! I also happen to be MSI so it is of particular interest to me. He had been saying that the results were even better than for melanoma, where they were having really goo...

Sucks on the wbc count, but hopefully that extra week will build you back up. They dropped my bolus dose for the last two treatments because I kept getting dehydrated.

Lol - thanks for the warnings. Last night was rough - cramps and up every hour in he bathroom. Docs came by this morning and said all of that is normal, and I can go home today. I will start working with my diet once I get home. One step at a time...

Surgery was yesterday, doc said it took 40 minutes and everything went well. First food and first poop both today so I'm probably going home in the morning. They wanted to send me this evening...but I feel a little better getting one more night under my belt. We will see what the next weeks bring! B...

I did short course too, but that ended up that way because I did the 4 rounds of folfiri/avastin for the liver mets first. It certainly was not their "standard" approach...seemed to me that we were making decisions as we went along. My doc said the difference for them in the decision was t...

Great - thanks so much for the info and encouragement. You reminded me to place an order so my "supplies" will be here before I go in!

I haven't checked in for a while, but I finished up 6 rounds of FOLFOX, had a follow up (clear for now) CT, and got the go ahead to see the surgeon about the reversal. I had pre op "leak test" and sigmoidoscopy both done on Monday, and everything looks good, so surgery is set for next Tues...

Judy, I can only share my experience. I had a colonoscopy and CT, and it appeared that I had the primary rectal tumor and possible a local lymph node or two. We set the treatment plan based on what they figured would be a stage 2/3 diagnosis once I got through pathology. My CEA came back 2 days late...

It sounds like it has been an emotional ride. Did he have any CEA testing before surgery? That might be one other data point to help guide the docs to look for advancement in other places. Even still, some have low CEA and still have spread. I got a CT scan as standard workup before surgery. It was ...

Awesome news!! I will post my experience, too, since I just had the very same thing happen (although I was still on "mop up" chemo). My CEA went from 3.2 to 3.5 to 4.3...I also had a 2 week sinus infection at that test. A month (and antibiotics) later, CEA is now at 3.3, clear scan. My doc...

Ugh - sorry to hear that it is giving you so much trouble. Did they give you atropine? I found the atropine shot + lomotil as needed (has atropine in it) worked much better to control the diarrhea. Good luck - dehydration has been my problem with chemo since I got the ileostomy. And I was on FOLFOX ...

I had one - we didn't really talk about it as an option, so I just assumed it was standard procedure to set the baseline after surgery. But I was also stage iv, so not sure if that makes a difference.