Hi! I am so sorry you are going through this. I have a different kind of cancer but I was diagnosed stage 4 melanoma 4 year ago and doing great. Beating the odds. I also have a friend diagnosed stage 4 colon cancer about the same time. She is also beating the odds. So there is always hope! Hang in there. I am glad you found what’s next. There are lots of great people here ready to help. Lots of other colon cancer patients and survivors.

Not necessarily.

Doctors are quite adept, these days, at keeping folks alive despite what you may have heard to the contrary.

I had a slightly different cancer. I had an anal cancer. Doctors thought my butt was so adorable that they refused to believe the cancer was anything but a wart or hemorrhoid for 13 long years. I had to gain a bunch of weight to make them stop staring at my previously adorable butt and concentrate on getting rid of the tumor.

Im still here telling tall tales 16 years later.

You dont need to die. Anyone who tells you differently ought to be fired from your team. If you like, let me know who it was and I will come explain that to them as they face the business end of my wagging finger and scapel sharp tongue.

Take heart. It wont be no picnic but you can and ought to Survive.

Best wishes

I was T3 N2 9 years ago. Doing just ducky these days. It ain't over......till it's over.

I am a 6+ year colon cancer survivor, still cancer-free. I was Stage IIIA with 2/26 nodes affected (I think, I’ve put most of the details behind me) so it sounds like we had similar diagnoses. I have two very dear friends who were also Stage III and are 30+ year survivors. They were my inspiration as I was going thru my surgery and chemo treatments.

I maintained as much normalcy for myself and my family. I was able to continue to work and continued a modified yet active lifestyle with my teenagers. I had to slow it down, I couldn’t be out in the sun during the summer, but it didn’t stop me from going to the shore, ballgames and outdoor activities in the evening.

There were a few days immediately after chemo when I was extremely tired and really needed to stay home, but it fell into a pattern so we could plan for my down days. My other days, we tried not to even talk about the cancer.

It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t horrible. My oncologist told me from the very beginning, it is doable. Yes, I think that was a good way to describe it. I used to say to my family, a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain.

Please feel free to reach out to me for support.

https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/ Check him out as he had colon cancer many years ago. I have Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and still here 4 and a half years later.....We are all going to die but maybe not right now.....Take a deep breath......Good Luck...What do the Docs say you should do?

Ị am stage 3B, after chemotherapy and radiation (26 rounds) the tumor almost disappeared. One month later, the surgeon made a sigmoidoscopy and took a tissue to biopsy, and he said that it is not show any cancer, but he advise me to make a surgery to cut the part where the tumor was. I did it on Monday (03/26) and I have to live with colostomy 6 weeks, but feeling well day by day. I might go home tomorrow. If you want to know what I was doing like how I eat, work,...kill stress, you can contact me anytime.

Erinkdent, please have hope!!

Hi Erikdent - stay positive! I was diagnosed as 3B 5 years ago at age 57 on the left side of my colon. I had a resection and 6 months of chemo. Very unusually, I had a tumor on my right side 1 year ago - it was considered a new primary - I had a resection and chemo. I'm doing well! I have a good team of doctors. Let me know if you have any questions. If you are on Facebook, there is a great group called Colontown which is also very supportive. You can do this!!

Caught my rectal cancer early, at a T-2 N0. Radiation and chemo ahead of a TEM surgery, which through my research, I convinced my Surgeon at IU Simon Cancer Center to do, instead of a LAR..............and I'm here writing to you going on 11 years later ! Hang in there, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and take part in your treatments ! Won't say it's easy, but have faith, be positive (as hard as that may seems right now) and you'll get through it and be back here to answer others questions a few years down the road !!!

Here is an article we posted a few weeks ago about having hope when you get a late stage diagnosis. take a look here>> https://www.whatnext.com/blog/posts/hope-and-the-stage-iv-diagnosis

Erin the answer to your question "Am I going to die?" ,is yep. But hopefully that day is in the far future. Tomorrow I will be 5 years cancer free. Eight years ago I was diagnosed with stage IV esophageal cancer and told I probably had 4-9 months to live. Then 5 years ago the esophageal cancer came back at the same I go an agressive uterine cancer. The Dr. said cancer would be back within 18 months. At that time "we will make you comfortable" On April 1, 2013 the Dr. said " You have only have a one in a hundred chance of being cancer free in 2018. Well here I am best April Fools ever.
Has it been easy? nope. But it has been doable and worth it
Now I am more terrified of nuclear war than I am of cancer.
While I was going through cancer there were many people praying for me. May I pray for you?

Erin, I had the same diagnosis as you. It was scary but I made it. I have been cancer free for 6 years now! Hang in there!

Stage IV endometrial cancer. Statistics at the time said 15% 5 year survival. That was in Aug 2012. Currently NED (no evidence of disease).

As BoiseB so aptly explained, "We are all going to die." But no one knows yet if your cancer will respond to treatment and how you will tolerate treatments. I am a Stage IV rectal cancer survivor with numerous pelvic positive lymph nodes that remained after chemo and pelvic radiation. I also did aggressive mop-up chemo after my surgery that was characterized as potentially curative. I have been NED (no evidence of disease) since my last mop-up chemo 2 1/2 years ago. Colon cancer is not a death sentence.

Hope and a positive attitude are extremely helpful. It sucks, but it forced me to create a bucket list. There are new treatments under development that will be game changers and you will win. Check out immunotherapy. They are trying to develop it for various cancers. They were successful with blood cancers, but the concept is to identify and eradicate cancer cells without destroying healthy cells. Whoever figures the answer will be famous. It was on national news.