Hello Kieran54, 

Welcome to our forum. I can imagine it was a bit confusing for you to find out that your surgeon wants to give you chemotherapy when you were initially told that this was not necessary. 

You might be interested in reading our information on oxaliplatin and you can find out more about its side effects here. 

I hope you will also hear from others here who have had oxaliplatin after a bowel cancer diagnosis. I hope you won't mind but I have changed the title of your post to include the words 'oxaliplatin'. This will increase the chances of others who have been on oxaliplatin seeing your post and sharing their experience with you. 

I've also done a little forum search for you looking for others who have had this treatment before and found for example [@Roadrunner19]‍  on this thread. To find other relevant threads on this subject, all you need to do is enter keywords such as 'oxaliplatin' on our 'search forum' function which is located on the blue banner at the top and feel free to respond to the ones that are of interest to you.

I hope this helps and that you will get chatting soon to others here who have faced a similar choice or had similar treatment following bowel cancer surgery. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Keiran

I had right hemicolectomy last August- cancer cells found in 2 out if 53 lymph nodes removed so recommended to have the chemo. I  had Oxaliplatin initially with capecitabine ( 1 cycle- Xelox) and then with 5FU- -Folfox. My oncology team were brilliant at adjusting the dosage to minimise side effects whilst maximising efficacy - so I had one 100% dose and 5 X 50% dose at 2wk intervals before stopping Oxali (I had 6 more cycles of the 5Fu only)  as I had numb fingers/tongue even between treatments ( it's normal to have sensitivity in the first few days) . Just under 4m later the numbness has reduced significantly -I'm now barely aware of it.  It's really important to report all side effects and their severity to your oncologists! They should adjust dosage to suit you. 

I hope this helps you decide .

Hi,  I had a bowel cancer removed after having radiotherapy only and no chemo (due to COVID). After surgery I was informed I had markers in 4 out of 45 lymph nodes. The cancer team decided I should have 8 cycles of CAPOX, however after the first three cycles I was noticing numbness in my toes and at the very end of my finger tips that did not recede over the three week period between cycles. The specialist recommended I cease the oxaliplatin after the fourth cycle whilst continuing the Capecitibine over the remaining 5 cycles. It was stated that the main drug During the treatment is the Capecitibine in any case.

Hello,

        l had capecitibine and radiotherapy pre surgery,and oxipilatin and capecetibine post surgery.Feeling in feet went awol after 4th round of six,and the pain was so bad l struggled to weightbear.Because l live off mainland ,a telephone call to the mainland replacement locum resulted in no change to treatment on island.Feeling in hands went after round five.

                                                                                                         If it does this damage to you,the cancer gets a hard time.l am left with dead painful feet,light tingling of fingers,but most importantly the benefit of feeling this pain daily,as l carry on with my life,When l consider the alternative it seems a fair price to have paid since you rarely get something for nothing in this life,

                                                                                                                       David