Hi all, Well, Tony completed his chemo and 28 radiation cycles - this treament was to shrink the tumour to an operable size and hopefully avoid a permanent colostomy. It worked extremely well. Tony was so lucky in that he did not suffer any side effects from the chemo and only a sore rear end from the radiation, but even that was not as bad as he had expected. The operation went very well and his surgeon has managed to remove all of the tumour, there are no visible signs that it has gone elsewhere but full pathology will not be back for a week or so. The medical team is talking about discharging him next weekend if he keeps on recovering as well as he has so far. And to really make it a couple of good weeks, our daughter has told us that we are to become grandparents (she is in her early 40s, no IVF and had decided it was not going to be). Don't know who is more surprised and excited - her or us. Christine