Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer - the long winding road it has become

[lechatnoir]

Best wishes at this testing time Cois. I hope each day brings strength and hope

[BigDL]

Feeling a bit down. Posting this out of Steve Biko.

 

I knew the cancer was aggressive but got a little shock.

 

I am waiting for treatment to avoid infection. I will be losing part of my liver, due to a "spot" on my liver. That is not to bad.

 

They will be removing my spleen at the start of next year and the tumour in my colon.

That is the delay in treatment to get me resistant to whatever.

 

My wife had to go and find two vials of injections as SBAH did not have stock.

 

So will keep updated as things happen

Stay strong brother. There are a lot of people on this forum who have you in their thoughts. I was sharing your story with my wife last week and we are both thinking about and hoping for you. Edited December 12, 2018 by wahoofish

[Cois]

I am being discharged the moment. Will have to be back on the 23of December for admission

 

I had 3 inoculations and thus the two-week break between it.  They are first going to do a visual scan to make sure that cancer did not spread to the lining around the area.

 

So this far I still have to see the oncologist next week, after the operation, I will be in for chemotherapy.  And sounds like this might be a little problem because of the spleen removal problem.

 

There is a lot of reading I have to do these following days.  I have been booked off till the 23rd but I am going to go nuts at home alone.  So not sure how to tackle this one.

[Sepia]

Keep us posted Cois. You are a star for sharing at this trying time.

You are in all our thoughts and your attitude will work wonders.

Strength to you all.

[ChrisF]

Best wishes for the road to recovery.

 

 

And wishing all the best with the idle time .... stay positive, and as busy as your energy levels allow.... 

[Gav1]

Strength to you mate. In our thoughts

[gogo@]

Thinking of you!

[GiantSpez]

Wot your your priorities?

[Escapee..]

Cois, how are you doing?

[Alistair Cookie]

My dad got diagnosed with colon cancer when he was 61. Due to the late diagnosis and spread of the tumour the prognosis was that it was a matter of weeks (I don’t wish that on anybody having to tell your dad that news…) but they would still start with chemo and do a colostomy.

 

After a few weeks of chemo the scans showed a stop in growth and everybody hoped the cancer would slow down. 6 Months after the treatment the cancer had shrunk enough that it could be surgically removed and even the colostomy could be reversed (although with a shortened colon).

 

He was able to enjoy his life after that in reasonable health and passed away at 73 due to heart problems.

 

Don’t loose hope and strength to you Cois

[cat-i]

Hey Cois, wondering how you're doing? Keep us updated if you have a chance.

[Cois]

Morning guys and girls

 

Sorry for the late update. But it has been a very difficult past two months so far.

 

I have spent most of 2019 in hospital so far. I am posting this from Steve Biko Academic Oncology department.

 

So update...

 

Cancer has spread to my liver and spleen (Stage 4) Most of December was spent in hospital as well, where they made the choice to remove part of my liver and the spleen.

 

I could not get a high care bed at that time, so was postponed to January.

 

The day came and they had a bed open. So was wheeled into theatre. I opted for an epidural, but it took them two hours and a half hours of attempting to get the epidural in (must have been his first time, as the real doctor got it in within 5 minutes. Few test to make sure I could not feel anything and was put to sleep for the operation.

 

I woke up the evening after 17h00 with my wife next to me, and I knew they did not remove the tumor or continue with the operation. The cancer spread to far. So they did a bit of exploring and looking round inside of me.

 

As someone said, they did do a colostomy (that wrecked my lifestyle) so for now cycling is still out of the question. It made such a change, that I wanted to commit suicide more than once, but due to the incompetence of some of the staff at Steve Biko. The Stoma person gave us all the wrong information, leading to infection of the stoma that would have killed me if it was not caught in time by a private company.

 

So had a few days recovery, found that with the epidermal they made a total screwup and suffering from back pain ever since then. Sitting is a real pain so working is a real problem (work decided that my sick leave note means nothing to them and I had to be back at the office as I was not sick and just wanted an extended leave.

 

So last week I was suppose to have my first chemo session, but due to the late operation date and the unhealed stitches it was postponed to today. So I hope I can start this fight today.

 

Just a huge thanks for all the support and messages from you all.

 

Just one request. Please do not support CANSA. In my biggest time of need I was told, sorry we do not have the resources to assist you and your family. All we wanted was a counseling session. They said a month ago that they will send us information to visit the nearest Hospice. We are still waiting....

[Sepia]

Good man.  Keep up the humor and good spirits.

Thinking of you all.

[Eddy Gordo]

Hectic man, stay strong 

[Alistair Cookie]

I agree with you on the CANSA support, they were not very helpful to us either. In fact they were plain rude.

 

Good luck on the chemo.

[Edition 507]

I've been thinking about you and that you haven't posted in a while. Sorry to hear about what you have been through the past couple of months. Wishing you all the strength to get through this tough time.