hi linda. i am sorry to read your news.  my 34 year old son discovered he had bowel cancer after being admitted as an emergency he was in so much pain as his bowel had blocked.  subsequent to this it was discovered that he has secondary liver cancer.  This was at the beginning of may,  Once recovered from his operation he started chemo, he has chemo every other week and stays in hospital for 3 days whilst it is administered.  As you know the shock of the situation is hard to come to terms with and subsequent to that is the treatment that follows.  He is just finishing his eighth session of chemo and will probably continue like this till at least the new year.  You have to have optimism that all will be well and enjoy each day to the full and try to keep things normal.   Not easy I know and probably not much help.  Take heart there are a lot of people on this forum with a wealth of knowledge to helpxxx

Hi sadmum

thank you so much for your reply.

i hope your son is coping well and that the treatment works for him.

everything I have read is very negative about surviving this combination of cancers so I was feeling very worried about it all.

we haven't been told yet what treatment they suggest as my husband needs to wait till after his PET scan.

what a shock when it comes out of the blue like this.

Hubby was fit and well, going to the gym each week etc and only visited the doctor because of gastric reflux. No idea it would lead to this.

so difficult to carry on as normal each day  but helps to know others are trying to do the same.

best wishes to everyone going through this.

Hi linda x

Sorry to hear of your hubby's diagnosis.  I'm 42 and was diagnosed in may with bowel cancer that has spread to my liver.

I had CT scan and MRI scan but no pet scan. I didn't need any surgery to my bowel to start with as the tumour there isn't causing mischief.

I was also fit and well with no symptoms other than a vague pain under my right ribs.

After all the scans I had to have biopsies of the liver because they needed to pin down the exact type of cancer it was. The biopsies from the colonoscopy were inconclusive so there was a bit of a delay before treatment but it doesn't make too much difference other than psychologically .

My oncologist recommended chemo. I'm on folfox every 2 weeks and I have a picc line in spend one day in the day unit and then I have a little pump at home for 2 days . The side effects aren't too bad really I'm just carrying on as normal.

After 6 rounds of chemo I will get another scan to see what's happening 

The chemo I'm on is described as non curative but there are lots of surgical options which potentially are .

Hope your husband gets sorted quickly once you know exactly what your dealing with and have a plan it does get easier 

Love hayley x

Thank you Hayley

so good to get a positive reply and it has given us encouragement that things may not be so bad to deal with.

i hope your treatment works well for you and you get a good outcome.

until now, I didn't realise just how many of us, sufferers and carers, are dealing with this horrid illness.

keep positive and we will try to do the same.

as you say, we will feel better once we know what the plan for us is.

all the best.

So sorry to hear about your husbands recent diagnosis with bowel cancer. 

My Dad was diagnosed April 2015 (18 months ago) with stage 4 incurable bowel cancer which has spread to his lungs and liver. Late July last year he suffered from a bowel obstruction and we very nearly lost him but luckily he'd just made it in time to the hospital for an emergency operation. Then February this year a PICC line was poorly fitted into his arm which lead to a blood clot which then caused him to have a stroke, luckily he recovered well from it although has lost some sensation in his left arm. I'm 27, so I have found it extremely hard to cope with at times especially when not many people around my age that I know has ever experienced anything to this extent. My dad's coped extremely well the past 18 months and continues to fight this cancer despite being told he has limited time all we can do is have hope. There were certain questions my parents didn't want to ask the oncologist which then made it somewhat difficult for me and my siblings to try and understand the situation. I did turn to Google in search of answers, cures, success stories etc but wasn't always welcomed with the answers I was hoping for. Everyone is completely different, I'm in fact in contact with a few members on the Macmillan site who have been living with stage 4 bowel cancer for 8 years or more. So there is hope...

Hi Linda so sorry to hear that your hubby has had such horrible news. I was diagnosed with secondary liver cancer over a year ago and had cancer in my bowel and liver my enitial diagnosis was actually not too good but I responded well to chemotherapy until the October and I had to switch drugs which drastically shrunk the tumours though I had terrible side effects. Was doing regular routine of Chemo until January of this year and had a scan and was told all my cancer we was gone (I nearly dropped to the floor) as it was not expected at all. Since had many check ups and scans and I'm doing great still fighting fit as I turn 74 in 3 days. Just have hope you  never know what could come round the corner. Take care -Diane 

Thank you, thank you ,thank you to everyone who has responded with their positive stories.

it has given us hope.

we wish you all well.

Thank you all once again.

Hi Linda, I am so sorry to hear about your husbands diagonosis a couple of years ago. I was wondering what your experience has been since this as my dad has just been diagnosed at the age of 62 with stage 4 bowel cancer which has caused secondary liver cancer. He has had an operation to remove the primary cancer and they are saying it isn’t curable but he will receive chemo so it would be good to know your experience in such a similar situation. Thanks xx

Hi Alex

sorry to hear about your Dad. It’s such a worrying time for you.

My husband had chemotherapy for 5 sessions then a bowel resection in 2017 and was told they had got all,of the cancer in the bowel.

A follow up scan showed the cancer had spread to his liver so 3 months after the bowel operation he had 60% of his liver removed.

He recovered well from both operations but when the results of the liver biopsy came back his doctors discovered that the tumours on the liver were not bowel cancer tumours that had spread, but the rarer Neuroendocrine cancers.

The primary Neuroendocrine tumours are in his pancreas and are not operable and since last year they have spread to many other areas.

He is now hoping to start PRRT treatment next month to slow the disease down.

He is still keeping well and as far as the bowel cancer goes, a follow up scan this year shows there is no recurrence of that particular cancer, so all good news on that front.

 I hope your Dad progresses well with his chemo, My husband managed quite well with the side effects, so I hope the same goes for your Dad.

Good luck to you both .xx

Hi Linda, 

thanks so much, comforting to hear about other people’s experiences and that your husband is still keeping well. I hope your husbands gets the treatment so slow down the disease.

thanks again

Alex