Hi, well you have certainly had an awful lot of tests over a long period of time.  I know you must be feeling at the point of having a meltdown but I would think that the tests must be nearly over and treatment will soon start.  I am sure then you will feel more in control of the situation.and your emotions will be under control.  It's the not knowing that is frightening, we have all suffered it, and have all been scared.

Have faith, treatment today is amazing and St Mark's is a wonderful hospital.

Wishing you all the very best, please , let us know how you get on.

Wow Dave you've had a time of it and no mistake!

In one way you may actually have been incredibly lucky

One of the things that makes some of these cancers so deadly is the way they can get so advanced before they're found. You wouldn't believe the number of stories of healthy people collapsing only to be told they have advanced cancer in multiple parts of the body

OK it's active but the fact that it is still localised is great news, looks like you're relatively young and fit too 

From what you say and a quick glance at the stats -  it sounds like the odds are seriously on your side

Don't get me wrong it's no small thing - my stepfather had something not dissimilar and whilst the operation completely cleared the cancer and he got an all clear it's taken him 18 months or so to start to properly get over the actual side effects of the surgery - but then he's 30 years older than you!

Good luck for next week's meeting I'm sure the surgeon will want to reassure you and give you good news but do ask him about how long he thinks it'll take you to properly recover - sometimes when you ask surgeons about recovery time mentally they seem to think about that as the time to discharge you from the hospital!

One last tip - write down all the things you want to ask him before you go in there - otherwise you will forget something

Thank you so much for the warm reply .. and yes I will update as soon as I know more !

Dave

I think that is what has gobsmacked me the most, I know on reading other peoples threads that I feel lucky but also it made me feel at first like I shouldn't have said anything .. so many terrible stories for their outcomes brought tears to my eyes .. [ yes, sorry I've always been an emotional person. ].

It was all happening and seemed to be running away from my grasp .. I never knew what polyposis was until I was diagnosed ... and the tumor reveal was like I was sideswiped.

But I wish to thank you for the good luck and warm reply !

Dave

On the contrary Dave

People love to hear survivor stories, they love to hear of people battling and winning.

Stay with us and tell how it goes, people will enjoy hearing your gains and when you get set backs they'll tell you that you'll get over them as you will.

I hope your surgeon will cut it all out sucessfully and you'll get that "All clear" - firstly for you and secondly because I hope you may stick around a bit on the forum and find people panicking from an initial diagnosis and be able to say to them "I was where you are and I beat it"

I had my appointment with my consulting surgeon yesterday, all feels very strange right now since it seems that over the previous few days I have what I can only describe as 'cramp feeling' on the tumor and a partial same feeling on the other side. It caused so much pain on Tuesday that I was sent home from work after doubling up ... GP came out and gave me some tramadol to try and ease the pain enough so I could travel on Wednesday.

Which brings us to to the consultation, met with the polyposis register people and tried to piece my 'past' to hopefully help the future since another scarey revelation has opened an old 'wound' so to speak. Anyway I had a 'cramp' attack whilst talking and the consulting surgeon had a feel of the site the worry is the second original large polyp in the sigmoid area is now possibly active as there was a mild swelling in that area. After a long talk about the options for removal was tabled the timeline has now been drawn into days rather than weeks .. the Macmillian nurse assigned to me was great in all the help she could give and helped arrange a preassement the same day since of my travel distance from where I live to St.Marks. I'm now in a new phase that makes me feel quite nausea at times, but I have an extentsive amount of contacts now should I need to talk to someone whilst I wait for the operation/admission date today.

The preoceedure that I have agreed with my surgeon is that of the illeo-rectal anastomosis, basically the removal of 90 percent of my colon, whether I'll have a pouch/bag is yet to be assertained as the CT scan has shown a shadowing behind the tumor area .. his plan is to start 'keyhole' surgery and look behind to make sure the cancer isn't breaking out ... am I scared ... very much so. Not over the proceedure but more of how I'm going to feel after the main operation .. because alot will happen afterwards in the respect of whether I'm going to require chemotherapy .. to the stupidest thought of how I'm going to feel about having something missing from my body. The other revelation is when I was weighed it has been calculated that in five moneths I have lost 2 stone in weight ..

Dave

Mornig Dave,

Happened to be up early and saw your post.

Yes I can imagine a scarey few days and yes I'd be worried about the recovery too - not a small operation.

As it happens a friend of mine has had similar, I believe a bit more extensive actually and is fine, and pretty much fully active and able now but it will take a while.

Worrying about the second one but sounds like you're in good hands and they're not jumping in without taking a look first. I guess whether or not you'll need chemo will depend on what they find and manage to take out.

You know cancer can have its irony - my wife was always a large lady even when we were married - she was disgusted that she got cancer and never even lost weight from it! Her oncologist wasn't he always told her there was no such thing as a bad calorie and she would threaten to tell her diabetic nurse then she'd try and persuade him to do surgery and some liposuction on the side!

Anyway you may need to watch the weight loss thing - did they give you advice I think a lot of people on here swear by those body builder shake things - of course there's always ice cream sundaes!

Good luck tell us how its going and look after yourself

It seems it has become very urgent, I was told today my operation date is the 3rd March !

Now I'm really scared stiff !

Dave

Well soon is good at least they're still talking surgery if they thought it had definately spread they wouldn't think it so urgent but yes must be scarey but it's only a week - this time next week you'll know how its gone.

 You'll have a lot of recovering to do so spend the next week wisely get all packed, arrage who's visiting and when - and hug all the people you need to hug.

And come on as soon as you can and let us all know how its gone

I know if must be quite scary thinking of the operation, but at least you will be on the way to recovery.  We will be thinking of you and I hope you wil let us know as soon as you can how things have gone. With best wishes.