Colon/liver Cancer

Although it's up to each individual what they should do, after my experience with all of the treatments, I would forget about them, get my affairs in order and then go about enjoying my life to the best of my ability. In truth the treatments just make it longer and harder. What's the difference, 2 years of hell or 6 months to 1 year of enjoying one another and the life that's left. Go on a great trip, write all the love letters you can, take pictures with everyone that comes to visit, journal everyday, cry like a baby, spend every moment with the ones you love, plan your funeral arrangements, get some counselling, join a local cancer group to make life-long friends, have a big party, eat out every chance you get and eat everything you want, ask Jesus to come into your life, forgive anyone that may have offended you, ask for forgiveness too, reach out to your family and friends so that they can reach back to you, refuse to lose faith in God, just do everything you can do and want to do and you'll never regret one moment. Actually we should do all that stuff whether we're dying or not. ENJOY all the life you can! Bless you.

I know you posted your question awhile ago.  I hope your husband is doing  better.  I was on Folfox and hated the oxaliplatins side effects. Cold intolerance and numbness and tingling.   But it was the 5FU that nearly did me in.  Fortunately my GI doctor recognize I was severely malnourished and put me on TPN ( intravenous nutrition) at home. I was able to eat but I was not digesting my foods because I was not making the enzymes needed. My doc put me on Creon (enzymes) and I responded very well.   I gained weight and got a little energy back. 

I had to switch to Folfiri and Erbitux and the only downside was my WBC's dropped.  However I keep getting infections so I am going to take prophylactic antibiotics with chemo, now. 

Hope this helps someone.

On 1/3/2006 Need2hope143 wrote:

My husband has colon cancer that went to his liver. He has had surgery to remove part of his colon, he is on chemotherapy to shrink the 2 tumors in his liver so he can have surgery to remove them from his liver. He is so sick with the chemo. He gets it every 2 weeks. Starts on a Wed and ends on a Fri. then he is sick for a least a week. We went to Boston for a consult and it was awful. He was told that he would live 1 year without treatment and 2 years with treatment. There was no cure. Is there anyone out there that has this? How are you doing? How long have you had it? I was hopeful till we went to Boston. His chemo is 5FU, Leucovorin, Oxiplatin. (Folfax 6). He cannot take Avastin yet because he is still slowly healing from his surgery. He takes Reglan and Ativan for his nausea which has helped with the vomiting, but he cannot eat. He continues to loose weight. After the Boston visit, he is thinking of stopping chemo because he is so sick with it. Does anyone who has this type of cancer have anything hopeful to tell me?

I had colon cancer in Dec of '03, went thru chemo from Jan - April, then had a colon resection. Lost 30 lbs and weht thru the chemo pains.Three years later I had 10 mets to the liver with one on the blood supply. Was given 6 months if  I didn't do anything. The doctors give you the standard statistics which scares everbody but everyone is differnt. Avastin kept the mets from spreading and shrunk them so they could operate. I would not give up chemo but have a discussion with your oncologist regarding the chemo issues. I was really sick 1/2 way thru the first chemo and they cut my dosage by 10% and it was much better. I would also get a second opinion from a liver surgeon.

For the hope part - I am still here but I don't think I would be here without Avastin and getting a second opinion on the liver surgeon. They now do quarterly scans which have been clean so far.