New Here. Got Through Chemo And Radiation Ok

No weight loss, no hair thinning. Just felt like I was hungover for 6 weeks. A few bouts of the runs and a sore butt but I guess that is part of the game.

Now looking forward to getting the tumour excised. Stage 2-3 very low. Surgeon wants to do a pretty radical job, and I've been looking at alternatives. Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM) sure looks like the way I would rather proceed. I didn't know about it at the time of my consultation with the surgeon so didn't ask him about it and only now have I emailed him asking if it would work for me.

Anyone with a similar story?

I'm 52 and in really good physical shape and exceptionally active physically. I compete in athletics, play tennis, hockey, ski and the like and really want to avoid the bag if at all possible. I also dread the recovery from a resection.

So hello everyone.

Hi, I'm a 42 year old mother of two small children. Like you,
I'm very active - skiing, hiking, running, swimming, camping...
I did all these before surgery and I still do.

My advice is to be aggressive and make sure your surgeon gets
ALL the cancer out. I was diagnosed with Stage III rectal cancer
last December. Went through Rad/chemo - same as you, then
surgery. As I neared surgery I was also worried about having a
bag for life - I can tell you, it's the least of my problems. Ask
your doc or read up on irrigation. You can live a very normal
life with a colostomy. But cancer will kill you.

I had surgery in March. By April they found mets to my liver
and told me I'd die - prognosis months to a couple years. I
have been aggressive and have since found a surgeon who
thinks he can operate on my liver. I now have a chance to live
several more years - maybe even be cured. But it's going to be
a VERY hard road and the odds are still stacked against me.

Please don't take any shortcuts w/ surgery just to avoid a
perment colostomy. It simply isn't worth it. Check out http://
www.uoaa.org/forum/index.php for good info advice and
support for ostomies.

I suppose that makes sense, and reading through my reports I think my diagnosis is closer to 4 than 2 as I thought it was, and my surgeon is of course correct in that I really need the aggressive treatment. I'm just having a hard time accepting that I really need the radical surgery since I feel so good now.
Things are almost back to normal now, and reading about life after surgery has been rather off-putting. I know that the cancer will kill me if I don't kill it first, just having a hard time coming to terms with the liestyle changes and feel that I'm going to be destroying a perfectly functioning body in order to beat the cancer.
For a while during the treatment I would have been glad to be rid of the sore bits, but now that I'm over that, I'm not so sure.
Best of luck in your battle.

Hi,
I had stage 3 (moderately differentiated). I had pre-op radio/chemo, and tumour shrunk significantly. But neither my surgeon nor my oncologist wanted to discuss staging before the operation. Apparently MRI and CT are not 100% reliable in staging. The operation was big (anterior rectal resection) in Nov 2005 - 13 cm of the rectum was cut out. With this kind of surgery it is possible to inspect surrounding organs properly. In my case the surgeon took out 11 limphnodes (8 were positive). I had colostomy for less than 2 months then it was reversed. After that I had six months of chemo... I was supposed to have 12 sessions but they had to stop it after 10. I still feel uneasy about that. In my opinion the more aggressive treatment the better. I would not take any chances :-) If you are in a good physical shape you will breeze through. All the best!