Brother diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer

Sorry about your brother. Dealing with 3 years of colorectal colon cancer and 22 rounds of chemo, here are a few things that have helped me deal with similar symptoms. Yogurts, fruits, bananas, rice, soups and eggs have been my go to foods while going thru chemo treatments, staying away from processed foods. For all the cramping, I found that eating smaller meals and smaller portions helped a lot. If I ate a large, heavy meal the cramping was terrible where I felt like I needed to go the bathroom, several times in a row, but only a little bit comes out. When this happens I take an Imodium to shut my system down for awhile. Smaller meals helped quite a bit. For the cramping, I take Compazine regularly thru the day and Zofran at night. This helps quite a bit for nausea and cramping. Hope this helps.

First, sorry he's going through this.

As a colon cancer survivor (FOLFOX6) the continuing cycles do wear you down and cause one of weaken. Seems one goes downhill the first week, then rebounds to 90-95% of where one started for each cycle - seems to be a cumulative effect.

Second, they can adjust the protocol. I had several times where they halted for a week or two, but mine was only Stage 3C with no lung spread. They also dropped the oxaliplatin early in my treatment because of the severity of side effects. The question I can't answer is whether they will do this for a stage 4 case.

Mayo Clinic did indeed tell me that nobody completes the 12 cycle - a cycle every 2 weeks protocol as scheduled.

The loss of taste and numbness is common. Nervous system issues such as neuropathy/numbness are common. I had severe balance issues (note: collapsing at the infusion center will get you LOTS of attention and a wheelchair ride to the ER), difficulty hearing, difficulty swallowing and weird visual issues which they attributed to the oxaliplatin.

I think what he's going through is typical and normal, but the oncology team should (and will) consider adjustments. The last thing they want is for him to drop out of his therapy, so they likely will make adjustments.

Hope this helps.

@steele

I’m so glad your brother has his sisters for support as well as his wife! I learned from my own treatments that it’s awesome to have several very close people in your main support team to avoid overloading any one person. You sisters are amazing. It’s such a bumpy ride, including getting used to each new side effect and getting on top of it. Chemo diarrhea is so much easier on the body than constipation!! Hydration is key and very small frequent meals.

Oh my goodness! Belong is fabulous - complements this site perfectly. Werner14 is such a tonic and has been through so much with his MML. I’m Isadora on there too.

Looking forward to keeping in touch and reading your updates. Please send my best regards to your brother 🙏😊🏋🏻‍♀️🤺

@percherondad, you're so right. Everyone reacts differently to chemo and different regimens will have different side effects. Breaks can help.

I also agree with your wise statement "Everything works but nothing works all the time."

A burning question based on your username. Do you have Percherons? Were you originally diagnosed with stage 4 or did cancer return metastasized?

Good evening,

I wanted to update those of you who have been so kind in following my brother's journey with colon cancer and giving me such great advise and support. This is what he sent us, his siblings, after leaving his oncologists office after his first scan after undergoing 6 rounds:

"Just left the Dr.'s office. The two small spots on my lungs are gone. The 8 mil shrunk to 5 and the 5 mil shrunk to 2. Will look at the colon tumor after 12 treatments, but the blood marker on the tumor is now normal. Chemo is working!!!"

He also asked for a reprieve as we both have a timeshare at the end of this month for a week and he was scheduled to undergo treatment that week. The oncologist said that yes, it could be pushed back a week.

He started round 7 yesterday with the 2 day pump coming off tomorrow. Said he was feeling good today.

I owned a beautiful Percheron mare for many years, thus my screen name. I had no symptoms of anything in 2021. I developed what my doctor thought was diverticulosis I took an antibiotic, and it went away, but my primary with whom I am very friendly said I don’t like the fact that you’ve never had diverticulosis before and you suddenly have it at your age I want you to have a. Colonoscopy. I went, and when I woke up and the doctor said he couldn’t get through with the camera that there was something blocking it, and he tattooed as far as he could go. Mind you I had already had a CT scan that showed a spot on my liver but didn’t show anything in my colon. To make a long story short I had a tumor the size of a baseball. I also had a CEA of over 300. The guy who removed the tumor in my colon did a really great job and resection to me. I had eight sessions of chemo I had a liver surgery at upstate in Syracuse New York that was very successful and then I developed some nodules in my lungs. I had another 12 sessions of chemo and my CEA, which was over 300 before my colon. Surgery is now 3.1. I am on xeloda As a maintenance drug and I seem to be OK. Of course every scan makes you bite your fingernails but generally I’m in really good health.

Thanks for sharing more details of your journey. Your experience will be helpful for other members of the forum, especially those who have questions and/or are newly diagnosed.