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Stage 3 colon cancer: What's your experience?

Colorectal Cancer | Last Active: Sep 5, 2023 | Replies (52)

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@atutt0912

I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in June 2022. My tumor was quite large, 12 cm, so the surgeon wanted me to do light chemo and radiation first. Radiation 5 days a week and chemo pill daily for five weeks. No bad side affects to speak of. I was exhausted the week following my last radiation. Waited a month, had surgery, loop ileostomy… and now I’m in round 7 of 12 of Folflox. I’m doing okay, the last round I started really feeling it. Super tired mostly. Overall, it’s not bad, I almost feel guilty that my body seems to handle it better than some. I will admit though, I feel it more each round, but still not what I thought it would be. I’ve not had nausea or hair loss, but others that I have in treatment with have occasional nausea and mild hair loss. The most significant side affect has been exhaustion. It’s manageable though. There is a guy that has my same treatment day and he originally had colorectal cancer, his treatment was different from mine, he had oral chemo and radiation, then surgery, but no chemo after. He was good for two years and on one of his 6-month checkups, they found a spot on his lung. That really scared me. I was trying to do 8 rounds, not 12, but hearing his story changed my mind. I’ll gladly take the 12 rounds the surgeon and oncologist recommended. I don’t want a reoccurrence. My surgeon was more adamant than the oncologist, he clearly sees a high reoccurrence rate, even though it usually appears in other organs. Either way, the guy in treatment was my reason for doing the 12 rounds.

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Replies to "I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in June 2022. My tumor was quite large,..."

I really appreciate hearing your journey and it helps me also feel a little better about the choice to do chemo. I know some of the comments on this thread sort of feel like chemo is not the way and it left me feeling more confused but at the end of the day each person is different and that’s what I felt too the rate or recurrence is so high that I didn’t want to risk not doing chemo and then having something else come up. I have a family to take care. Wife and kids. I knew I needed to do everything to beat it and chemo was what gave me the best shot. That being said I’m in round 2 of folfox as I type this. I’m like you. My body seems to be tolerating it well so far. The exhaustion on the day of Chemo is rough and I do get the neuropathy in my fingers but I’m still early in my journey. But so far I’m managing and I’m keeping myself as healthy and clean eating as possible to give my body a chance to really stay strong. Hang in there. You’re almost to the end of your treatments.