CancerCompass message board discussion started by Hammerwerfer on 10/20/2006 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,7355,0.htm Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ 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. Hammerwerfer Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT 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. Lifes2short Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT 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. Hammerwerfer Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT 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! Aco26 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT