Colrectal Stage 3 cancer.

There's no easy solution, since most people before him probably have similarly urgent needs, and have waited as long. Bumping him up means bumping someone else down who also may not be able to afford the wait. It's a slow process that requires a lot of monitoring, imaging, and followup to even know if its working. He can't just get in line like at a methadone clinic, pop his pills and leave.

There's a lot of discrepancy in pathology interpretations and this is not well known to the public generally. Getting your biopsy slides shopped around and sending them to bigger centers like armed forces institute of pathology may help you get a better grip of how aggressive your tumor is, and how safe it is to wait. Yea they can dedifferentiate any time, but a poorly diff carcinoma versus a glandular well diff tumor, even if both 3a as far as invasion, can have very very different timelines and outcomes.

Brando_sl said:

My boss is 52 and was just diagnosed with colon cancer about 18 months ago. After talking to a bunch of doctors and weighing his options he decided to do nothing but regularly monitor it. The reason being most men die with colon cancer but not because of it. As long as it doesn't spread he's going to just keep on doing the same thing.

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Sorry your boss is an idiot and is soon to die from metastatic colon cancer.

Edit: Also, you guys need to calm down and stop egging the poor guy. Some things can wait and aren't urgent (even if it may seem so to the layperson) and if he's in Canada/UK/Australia I'm sure the wait will not jeopardize his health.

niss_sl said:

Sorry your boss is an idiot and is soon to die from metastatic colon cancer.

Edit: Also, you guys need to calm down and stop egging the poor guy. Some things can wait and aren't urgent (even if it may seem so to the layperson) and if he's in Canada/UK/Australia I'm sure the wait will not jeopardize his health.

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You should probably stop offering a prognosis on a case you have no information about there, doc.

Iannis_sl said:

You should probably stop offering a prognosis on a case you have no information about there, doc.

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Right back at you.

This may sound crass...but get some spunk in the freezer-bank ASAP! Since you are clearly wanting children, it is the *absolute best* thing you can do for your future family. You have a terrible, terrible ride ahead that can be survived, but the treatment could destroy your genetic possibilities for parenthood. If you have sperm banked, there is a lot that can be done via IVF in the event of ill fortune in that regard.

You have my deepest sympathies, mate. Stare that bastard in the eye and fight hard. Don't ever give in.

Ask your physician if HBO is a relevant adjuvant treatment in your case. HBO as in HyperBaric Oxygen therapy. We use it for treatment of complications to osteoradionecrosis, necrotizing fasciitis, myonecrosis (rare now) and various cancers, including the colon / rectum. HBO has tumor inhibitory effects in some cancer types - can't say without the say of a pathologist's biopsy analysis. It also helps the healing process after radiation damage. Ask your physician if it's worth looking into for you.

For those wondering, yes, HBO is also used for diving accidents, CO poisoning and skin grafts (plastic surgery).

Here is more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510426/
http://www.oxynet.org/

Good luck... scary stuff.

I can only imagine they have dozens or hundreds of other cancer patients waiting for the same thing, it really sucks but they can only accommodate people so quickly. I think that must be the worst part of it all... waiting for anything to be done while it brews inside you. Do you have any kind of medical/critical illness insurance through work? Where I am if you are diagnosed with something like this you are eligible for a claim after 30 days of the diagnosis, which can then be used for private clinics etc.

Sooner you can get treatment the better. Even if you go into a little debt for it, I would say it's worth it given the generally high survival rates for this sort of stuff.

Best of luck to you.

Izo_sl said:

Ask your physician if HBO is a relevant adjuvant treatment in your case. HBO as in HyperBaric Oxygen therapy. We use it for treatment of complications to osteoradionecrosis, necrotizing fasciitis, myonecrosis (rare now) and various cancers, including the colon / rectum. HBO has tumor inhibitory effects in some cancer types - can't say without the say of a pathologist's biopsy analysis. It also helps the healing process after radiation damage. Ask your physician if it's worth looking into for you.

For those wondering, yes, HBO is also used for diving accidents, CO poisoning and skin grafts (plastic surgery).

Here is more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510426/
http://www.oxynet.org/

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Haha, this brings back memories of microbiology when we learned about Clostridium perfringens and treating it.


Izo, what do you do, exactly?


Sorry about what you're going through, Tidbits. Keep us informed of any updates.

No. It happens.

Do you and your partner have paperwork on file for her to be able to make medical decisions for you should you become unresponsive or something unexpected happens? Not trying to sound rude here, just hoping you have it. Your family could swoop in and take the ability for her to make decisions away.

Chemo = you are going to feel like hammered dogshit on it.

Have present Tidbit write a letter to future Tidbit that tells him why he is doing all this and remind him to stay strong. A nice letter to yourself will keep good thoughts strong and help stay the depression you are likely to enter into on chemo.

Good luck mang.

Jalynfane_sl said:

Chemo = you are going to feel like hammered dogshit on it.

Have present Tidbit write a letter to future Tidbit that tells him why he is doing all this and remind him to stay strong. A nice letter to yourself will keep good thoughts strong and help stay the depression you are likely to enter into on chemo.

Good luck mang.

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I can't echo both of these things loud enough. Chemo is going to make you hate life, but it's doable. There will be times when you want to throw in the towel, but I really hope you stay strong through the process.

Writing a letter to your future self is a pretty rad idea. I wish someone would have recommended that to me while I was going through treatment last year. Your perspective on life changes through the treatment process, but you'll come out stronger on the other side. I hope you have a stable support system around, and people who are willing to help out with the little things you may need assistance with.

Everyday tasks become quite a bit harder, and if you're only relying on your lady, it can be hard on the relationship. Let your friends and family help out, even if you don't feel like you deserve it. They (presumably) care about you and want you kicking cancer's ass instead of worrying that you puked on yet another towel.

Best wishes mate.