Hi all hope you are well

First off big thank you to all those who gave me advice on my last post about dealing with the NHS and my newly diagnosed mum who was being messed about terribly, we got in touch with the PALS service and have some numbers they were great. The NHS here however is causing us almost as much upset as the cancer .....

So today my mom had her stoma checked by the stoma nurse and after the previous messing about a scheduled meeting with her consultant we assumed for a treatment plan. After 2 hours waiting we were called to our scheduled meet with her conusutant ... only when we got into the room it was someone we had never seen before and who clearly knew nothing about her case. This colorectal doc had had a cancellation and decided to be my mums consultant for the day! He spent 10 minutes literally fooling around on his computer trying to find my mums files before reading a few of them in front of us, gave us a half assed diagnosis (the histology said adenocarcinoma but they dont know where probably bowel) and then checked her stoma even though the specialist stoma nurse had already messing up her last stoma bag.

He then informed us she would have chemo sometime but couldnt find an appointment with an oncologist, gave us no other information and then decided to vanish and see why my mom diagnosed with cancer wasnt in their system for a meeting with one of the hospitals 3 oncologists. This meet wasnt about discussing a treatment plan at all it was just a run around and hugely distressing... I raised the fact that she should have her first treatment soon because I had been on this forum and was informed she should be treated within 62 days or whatever so then he disappeared.

My mom started to get very upset and confused as to why we werent meeting with our consultant and no oncologist was on the cards, the nurse in the room seemed embarrassed and when the doc left she came over and I unloaded a bit about all the messing about and lack of faith in this doc and she said we should absolutely see my moms consultant and she would sort it because it wasnt on. My scared and weeping mum agreed and we heard the nurse outside telling the random doc that she should see her consultant and not him asap. 5 Mins later the doc came back and said he would sort out a pain med prescription and we would see the consultant as intended when he was free (he never sorted the prescription)

My mom was in bits so we went to the waiting room to wait for another 30 minutes while she sobbed in front of a clearly uncomfortable room full of people waiting : / I comforted her as best I could but honestly i was crushed and felt let down

We finally saw the consultant and explained everything who apologized for the prev cancelled meetings not knowing how it could happen and seemed confused as to what exactly we knew (not much apparently). He then went through everything from when she was admitted and we were told her blood had high levels of tumour markers (news to us) her adnexal mass they initially thought was ovarian was almost certainly colon in nature and said my mom had a large 2-3 inch adenocarcinoma in her lower right bowel (news to us) which they couldnt remove during the emergency surgery she had due to the size (news to us), he also said that they had biopsied a number of small spots / nodules on her stomach which were positive to be cancerous (news to us) ... he also informed us he hadnt even operated on my mother but the surgeon on call that evening (news to us we were told differently)

He explained she would need chemo to try and shrink the cancer. The wonderful head nurse who was there explained bowel/colon cancer had lots of drugs available and they would try various and my moms hair wouldnt fall out with that type of chemo and although they couldnt give a prognosis because it will ultimately depend on her response to the chemo.

I asked what grade and stage they thought the cancer was my mom broke down and the consultant said it doesnt really matter and sometimes people dont want to know (I wanted to bloody know). My mom was by now inconsolable and the wonderful nurse comforted her and promised to arrange the oncologist personally and call next day for a consult asap (bless this angel seriously)

So there we are. Newly diagnosed with a large adenocarcinoma of the right colon which is causing a blockage, seems to have spread only to the stomach with a number of small cancerous spots /nodules there are no secondary tumours they found. Various fluids taken during surgery proved negative for cancer (lymph nodes were not checked though)

So my questions are for the community since our faith in the doctors is severaly tested (sorry for the novel it has been a god awful day)

Has anyone been through this sort of scenario or know of people who have with nodules to the stomach spread from adenocarcinoma?

Can the chemo clear up the stomach nodules or will she likely require a stomach removal?

How effective is chemo usually in shrinking large tumours of the colon? I know it is a very common cancer 95% of colon cancers are adenocarcinoma

Should we be aggressively pushing for a specific type of treatment? 

This sounds like stage 3 to me what do people think?

Any and all advice, ideas, knowledge and help is appreciated because like I said, we are rapidly losing faith and are becoming disillusioned with my mums care even though she is attending a very large and well staffed hospital. Never seen my mom as broken as she was today, not from the cancer but from the merry go round :(

kind regards

Dean