Hi, From the discussions I've had with other cancer patients, everybody reacts a little bit differently to chemo, even to the same chemotherapy drugs. Personally, I didn't experience a great deal of tiredness/exhaustion until round 9.   For the first 4 or 5 rounds, I would just go back to my work office and continue working. After each round the side effects were just a little worse, but after round 9 of FOLFOX, the fatigue hit me like a brick. I would just go home and sleep for the rest of the day. I couldn't manage anything else. But everyone is different.   How is your brother going now? Has he finished treatment? Hope all is well   -s ... View more

Hi, I'm very sorry to hear about your cancer and especially your depression. Everything (The cancer, the treatment and the side effects) are so difficult to deal with on top of each other. I would advise you to consider calling the cancer council support hotline. https://www.cancer.org.au/support-and-services/cancer-council-13-11-20   Everything adds up and sometime the challenges can fells so difficult to deal with. And that's OK. How are you going with side effects? Would you like to tell me some more about your story and how you got here?   Best of luck, sch   ... View more

Hi,   I'm sorry to hear about your Mum.   Do they know what stage the chemo is? Or is that still to be determined?? I don't have any experience with breast cancer, so I'll refrain from speculating on the results of the chemo. I would suggest that this is probably a great question to ask your Mum's oncologist.   I hope everything is getting better for your Mum. Best of luck.   -s   ... View more

Hi PaulineF,   I hear you. I had a bowel resection followed by 6 months of chemo too (FOLFOX in my case). Glad to hear that you've responded well to the chemotherapy. How are you going post surgery? Any difficulties?   Yes, the peripheral neuropathy can be difficult. I had quite a few side effects from the chemo. The side effects get better over time, but it can take a while. Let me know if you have questions.   -s   ... View more

I had bowel, so a different treatment. I won't be any good to you I'm afraid. All the best. Keep us posted about how you go. I'd love to hear more about how you go.   -s ... View more

Hi, I'm sorry to hear about your cancer. It's a terrible thing to go through even if your treatment isn't extensive. You are allowed to feel upset about what is going on. If you read through the stories on here you will find stories from all experiences, from stage 1 through to people who are stage 4 and terminal. This is the way it is, and everyone deals with it differently.   Which state are you having your surgery in? Good luck your surgery. The surgeons are very good at what they do. You will be fine.   -s ... View more

Hi, As I'm sure you are aware, a sample is sent off to a lab for analysis, not analysed by the GP themselves. My advise is generally to keep pushing until YOU are satisfied.   I don't really know what the test procedures/protocols are. Perhaps ask your doctor his opinion on whether the earlier tests could have been false negatives and see if there are other tests they can perform to verify?   Best of luck!!   -s ... View more

Hi Darlene,   I know a few people now that have found out about bowel cancer from the home testing kits. While it's never great news finding out you have cancer, hopefully they've managed to catch this early and you will have a number of treatment options.   I'm not too sure what the state of your lungs is, so it's going to be hard for anyone here to know more.   As far as the endoscopy/colonoscopy goes, I guess you'll just need to discuss this your doctors. If the state of your lungs is bad and they need to wait for them to heel, maybe they'll choose to use a different scan. Say a CT scan and then give you some chemotherapy, while your lungs heal. I'm speculating here. Best of luck and make sure you let us know how it goes!   -s     ... View more

Hi butterfly, I am so very sorry to hear your story. How painful for you.  I was diagnosed with bowel cancer when I was 40 too. I have been lucky enough to have two children.   How are you going? Are you ok?   -s   ... View more

Hi Journeyman, Thank you for joining and sharing your journey. I hope you are feeling better.   -s ... View more