Jenn, Are You There? Signet Ring???

Hi Jenn, it's Jodi. I'm so sorry I haven't written in a while. I cannot find our previous messages so I'm not sure how to get ahold of you. My husband is in the hospital again. He had resection of the colon and is now having kidney problems. CT scan today to determine why. Haven't even got to start chemo yet. It's completely consumed his abdomen, intestines and colon. I hope it hasn't reached his kidneys. I've been thinking about you all the time but I guess I just don't know how this website works. I've been looking all morning for our back and forth messages. Please respond and let me know how you're doing? On my way back to the hospital. Will look for a message tonight. My love your way, Jodi

Hi Jodi,
I am not sure if we are looking for the same person or not, but I was on the colon cancer section and talked with a gal from Orlando, Forida. She has stage 4 colon cancer and has 4 kids. My mom also has stage 4 colon cancer. jenn and i had many posts back and forth, but then suddenely they stopped. About 3 weeks ago. I haven't heard from her and even posted a new message-like you- looking for her.
Like I said I don't know if we are looking for the same person or not. I don't know if your husband has colon cancer but if he does go to the colon cancer section. There are alot of great people over there. ValerieC

Thank you Valerie. Yes he's stage 4 Signet Ring/Colorectol. We just started chemo and he is now beginning to vomit. It's our 3rd day. We are on Xeloda, which is a pill form of 5FU. His Dr. didn't want to start him on chemo until he completely recovered from his colon resection surgery. The only thing is, is that it had spread everywhere and we're in a race against time. I took him to Stanford Cancer Center for 2nd opinion and they said to start right away. Our doctor agreed and we started on Sat. If it's gonna help, it should do so within about 4 weeks. He should notice a difference. I pray for everyone touched by this disease. We were just diagnosed on 10/14/06 and were given 4-5 months. I hope to God they're wrong. I'll check out the colon cancer section. Your mom is in my prayers. And I think we are looking for the same person. I hope she's okay. Last I heard, her chemo was finally starting to work. That was a few weeks ago.

Hi Jodi,
I am very sorry to hear about your husband, but remember, don't give up-things will get better. My mom was diagnosed on May 2006 with stage 3 colon cancer. She had a large tumor in her secum, and 3 out of 12 lymph nodes were involved. She had surgery -which went great and started chemo(Folfox)in early June. Because of severe deppression after 4 Folfox treatments, my mom had a PET Scan. That was when her onc said that the cancer had indeed metastasized. She had 6 new tumors. One in her left adrenal gland, and the other 5 in lymph nodes. One in her neck, one in her shoulder, and three down her back. When we got this bad news, it was August 15th. My mom's onc said with out further treatment, my mom would probably live another 6 months. My family was devastated. On Aug 28th we started a new chemo treatment for metastatic colon cancer. Xeloda/Avastin. She takes the Xeloda two times a day for 14 days. It's a 1000mg in the morning and 1000mg at night. And Every other Monday, she goes in for her Avastin which is administered through her port. At the end of October, 2 1/2 months after starting the Xeloda/Avastin, my mom had another PET scan. The results were amazing. 5 out of 6 tumors were gone. The only one left is in the one on her left adrenal gland. We are going to continue with the current treatment until the end of January to see if that tumor will respond. If it does not, they will consider doing surgery to remove it. Then my mom would be truly in remission or NED(no evidence of disease.)

I am so glad that you took your husband for a second opinion and that they said to start chemo right away. I think you are right when you say that we are in a race against time and this ugly beast. Is your husband on any other chemo with the Xeloda? Where has the cancer spread to? Does your husband have a port? We used many nausea meds, but found that reglan(sp)
and gralla worked the best. It is important to get the vomiting under control. Talk to his onc about this. Is he drinking plenty of water?

To get to the colon section of this board: go to the main message board and click on it. There should be a section that says CANCERS, click on colon cancer and it should take you to that section. There are alot of amazing people over there who have great advice, and amazing stories of survival.

Look forward to hearing back from you. I will keep you and your husband in my prayers.
ValerieC

Hi Valerie,
What promising news. Your mom sounds like a fighter and is lucky to have you fighting hard with her. My husband is on Xeloda 3 500mg pills twice per day. We cannot start the Avastin yet due to the size of the tumor on his colon. Studies have shown that with colon tumors this large, it has exploded the colon. The cancer is all throughout his GI tract, all in his abdomen, all throughout his lymph nodes mainly left side underarm, side, chest and neck. It has also mastastasized (sp?) to his lungs. He's just getting over resection of the colon surgery (10/30), which he developed pneumonia and is almost finished with anitbiotics for that. He now has trouble walking and the tumors are beginning to go to lymph nodes on his right side underarm. When they opened his abdomen up, they said his belly was consumed with tumors. When they did colonoscopy, the doctor told me to just take him home and do all the things he's always wanted to do. Only problem is, he keeps getting worse and we haven't had an opportunity yet. Hopefully/Prayerfully, the chemo may get some of this under control. I wish we could start the Avastin but i guess it's just too dangerous at this point. He has no port yet. Thanks for the nausea meds advise. We'll be seeing his Onc on Friday and I'll mention it. He is drinking plenty of water and I just added lemon to it (advise from your prior posting). When you add lemon, do you squeeze it into the gallon? If so, how many lemons? I squeezed one. I've also bought a cookbook for live/whole foods to start him on a tasty diet. How does the Kyo green taste? I have Barley green and he can't stand it. By the way, my family is: Ray (40), myself Jodi (37), kids from his prior marriage: Roman (19), Kayla (16) and Zach (13), kids from my prior: CJ (17), and Robert (10), and one son together, Nate (2). Just to give you a glimpse at our family. I see you have 3 great boys. :) We have 5 great boys and one great girl. God has graced me with an overwhelming feeling of "everything's gonna be ok". But sometimes I get real overwhelmed and break down. I'm working on that. You are in my prayers. How are your boys handling grama's condition? We look forward to the word Remission and the new one I just learned from you, NED!! Glorious!!

Hi Jodi,
I see that you found the colon cancer section(I saw your messages there). We need to decide where we are going to post. Here on the caregiver or on the colon section. I just don't want to miss any of your messages!!! I vote we post on the colon one because if someone else with colon cancer reads our posts they might be able to help us with great advise. Let me know what you think!!

We actually bought a machine that produces high alkaline water for my mom so we don't have to do the lemons anymore. I would squeeze may be one to two lemons in a gallon of distilled water a day. Is Ray able to get a gallon of distilled water down a day? I know this was very hard for my mom, but she worked her way up to it. I drink the Kyo-green in water and it does not bother me, but my mom can not stand it that way so we mix one tsp into all her juices.
We are juicing about 4-5 times a day-all organic fresh fruits and veggies. She does not seem to mind the taste that way. For sure ask the onc about the nausea meds. My mom will occasionally feel some nausea, but she has only thrown up one time. We have been at this since June, so I think that is pretty good. So, Ray was diagnosed in Oct? Had he had any prior colon problems? Do they have any idea when he might be able to start the Avastin? Or how about erbitux or panitumumab? I guess they are just trying to give him time to heal from his resection surgery and to get over the pneumonia?
So even after the resection, he still has a tumor in is colon? Just trying to understand because they took my mom's tumor out and put the colon back together. Hers was in the secum.
I am glad to hear that you are starting all the diet changes- I think it really helps. Try to keep him as strong as you can to fight this beast!! Is he suffering from any depression? My mom's depression was terrible. She is finally getting better with that.

My family is: Ash(husband) he just turned 41, Me (Valerie)I just turned 40, our oldest son Robert is 22, next is Colby 19, and finally McCade is 13. The two older ones our at college together-talk about scarey!! They are doing fine with their grades, but are very ovewhelmed and scared about their Granny. I think McCade (13) probably has it the worst because I leave and go down to my parents house for a week at a time to help my mom and dad out. They are still very young 63 and 67, but they do appreciate the moral support. I go for every treatment. I quit my job. My husband had to hire a house cleaner/nanny to help out with our youngest one. It all is working out OK. You guys sound like you have your hands full with 6 kids!!!Are all of them still at home? That's great, I love big families. Are your parents and Ray's parents around where you guys live? Can they help you out? Even for support. I will keep you and your family in my prayers-talk to you soon.
ValerieC