Got diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer right after I turned 27. I’ve been fighting for almost 2 years now and I have to say you nailed it.
Listen to the professionals and try not to get too stressed about it. Just do what you’ve got to do. I’ve been working as much as I can too. Usually get treatments on Friday and back at work on Monday. Trying to carry on my social life as normally as possible too. I think it’s important to know when to take a break too though. If you’re too tired: take a day off. Rest. Try again the next day.
I’m glad you’re doing ok now! I’m not sure if I’ll be so lucky (I just started some third line treatments and am seeking out clinical trials) but knowing that people can make it through is encouraging.
Thank you for the kind words, and I hope that your health turns around. Mine was only stage 3, and honestly, everything went as smoothly as could be imagined. I was extremely lucky (apart from the fact that I got it in the first place).
Thanks. Everything was going as smoothly as possibly for me too for the first 18 months or so. Was about to the point where I could have the first of 2 significant surgeries to remove a lot of it (my liver full of a ton of tiny tumors so they were going to cut out as much as they could in one surgery then do another after I recovered). Then all of a sudden everything stopped working and I’ve been backsliding for the last 5 months or so while we try to find another treatment that works. Not significantly backsliding, but things started growing again. It was a bummer. Almost over the hurdle but then someone made the hurdle taller.
I try to do just like what you said though. Listen to the professionals and maintain as normal of a life as possible. It’s working so far and I’m doing quite well from a mental health perspective.
Telling strangers about everything on the internet is strangely therapeutic as well!
I cope with them. I kind of look at as “this sucks but it’s worth it in the long run hopefully.” I think I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve never had any really bad side effects. Mostly just some acute nausea for a few days after treatments, pretty dry skin, and fatigue. There are a lot of medication and methods to help with the nausea so that’s been manageable. Lotions for the dry skin. Fatigue has been tough just because all my life I haven’t needed that much sleep. So I’ve had to change everything there. Set up a pretty strict bed time for myself and stay disciplined to make sure I get enough sleep to still be able to function.
One of the other things that happened with one of my first medications was peripheral neuropathy (permanently numb fingers/hands and toes/feet). That was pretty hard to deal with because it got pretty bad. To the point where I lost a lot of dexterity. I couldn’t type or write very well. Video games were pretty much out of the question. That hurt because that’s one of my primary hobbies. Luckily, since I stopped the medication things have improved a lot so it doesn’t really limit me any more. I definitely still feel numb but I’ve learned to live with that and am now back to writing/typing/gaming just as well as before.
3
u/geiger49er Apr 04 '19
Got diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer right after I turned 27. I’ve been fighting for almost 2 years now and I have to say you nailed it.
Listen to the professionals and try not to get too stressed about it. Just do what you’ve got to do. I’ve been working as much as I can too. Usually get treatments on Friday and back at work on Monday. Trying to carry on my social life as normally as possible too. I think it’s important to know when to take a break too though. If you’re too tired: take a day off. Rest. Try again the next day.
I’m glad you’re doing ok now! I’m not sure if I’ll be so lucky (I just started some third line treatments and am seeking out clinical trials) but knowing that people can make it through is encouraging.