My dad has just had a colonoscopy and it looks like he has bowel cancer

[pinkchampagne1]

He has had symptoms for a while (mucus and rectal bleeding) but has put off getting checked out until recently. His FIT test was very high so he was fact tracked for a colonoscopy which he had today. Just phoned my mum and it looks like they have found a large growth which looks to be cancer. My dad is 83 and I adore him so I am so upset. 😢

Good luck to your dad, pink. Hope it all goes ahead as planned 🙏

Thank you.
Sending you and your DH lots of luck for Thursday. Will be thinking of you and hoping all goes well. ♥️

Thank you. It's on Tuesday 😉

Sorry, will be thinking of you on Tuesday. Hope all goes well. X

That sound as if it's similar to mine but a bit further down - I had most of the left side of my colon removed via keyhole surgery and rejoined with no need for a stoma.

That's good to hear! Can I ask how old you are, what's size the tumour was and what stage please? How long was your recovery?

I'm 65 - I was 64 when I had the op (a left hemicolonectomy with resection) 18 months ago, The tumour was 5cm and situated at the top of my sigmoid colon.
I was originally graded as Stage 1 (T2N0M0) but this was changed to Stage 2 - graded T3N0M0 after the op when they could see that the tumour had got through the bowel muscle wall (the grades for colon cancer are described on the MacMillan Website here).
Staging and grading of bowel cancer | Macmillan Cancer Support

I spent about six days in hospital after the keyhole surgery op - unfortunately I had ileus (frozen bowel) after the op which is not uncommon and not very pleasant and meant I was nil by mouth for a few days afterwards. It took about six to eight weeks to get back to reasonable fitness after the op. THere's a full story on my profile over on the bowel cancer online community on the Macmillan website here Macmillan Online Community

Good luck to your DH today Meredusoleil

Will be thinking of you both. Hope all goes smoothly. 💐

@pinkchampagne1 Hope your dad has his PIC line fitted succesfully today
and @Meredusoleil Hope all goes well with DH's op.

Am thinking of you both 🍀

Thank you. 😊
Dad has had his PIC line fitted finally and also has his pre chemo check. Fingers crossed that his first treatment can go ahead on Thursday. 🤞

My dad has also just received a pre operative assessment appointment in London for next Monday.

@pinkchampagne1That sounds really positive. Glad things are moving.

@Meredusoleil Hope things have gone ok today.

Thinking of you both.

Dad finally got his first round of treatment yesterday. Fingers crossed that he doesn’t feel too poorly with it and that this chemo works for him. 🤞

I hope your DH’s surgery went well. X

Thanks for asking. They couldn't get the tumour out via keyhole, so they had to open him up unfortunately! He is obviously still in hospital atm and on a liquid diet due to sickness, which is not helping him build up strength to start walking around. But I am hopeful with some more time, things will improve 🙏

@Meredusoleil Sorry to hear that. If the sickness is due to ileus (frozen bowel) it's not uncommon but very unpleasant , but should sort itself out in a day or two. I was so relieved to hear my tummy rumbling again after a few days of absolute silence from within !

@pinkchampagne1 Hope your dad's chemo goes ahead successfully today

Your poor DH. 😞 Sorry to hear he has had a rough time. I hope he is feeling a bit better now.

My dad had his chemo on Thursday. He seems to be tolerating it ok so far.
He has his pre op for his liver surgery tomorrow so my parents have another trip to London. Hopefully that won’t wipe him out too much.

Thanks for the message. He has improved since then thankfully and is now eating and walking a bit 😊

Oh that’s good to hear. 😊

My dad now has a very sore mouth and is pretty wiped out following his recent treatment. Just hope this chemo does what it should

Hope he feels better soon and the chemo does the job 🙏

My dh came home yesterday after a week in hospital. He has to have 2x daily injections to prevent blood clots and 3x2 paracetamol for pain killers. Other than that, it's about finding a balance between constipation and diarrhoea atm!

Good news that you have your DH home now. I hope he is feeling back to himself very soon. 💐

My dh has been told he has to have chemo 😐

How is your DH doing?

I guess they want to make sure there are no cancer cells left in his body. The chemo for bowel cancer seems less brutal than other types of chemo. My dad hasn’t suffered too much, and he is now on 2 different chemo drugs. He hasn’t lost any hair either.

My dad is off to Kings on Wednesday for his liver ablation surgery.

That's good to know that your dad tolerated the chemo well. Did he have a 3 or 6 month course of drugs?

My dh is fine, but we were hoping the surgery would be the end of it 😕 He is waiting to see the oncologist now about the plan going forward. Fingers crossed for a 3 month course of tablets or will a drip definitely be involved?