Hi Vanessa, thank you for your nice thoughts and thinking about you. You were dx way before me and you are an inspiration and testimony that life is good and that chronic diseases even though they are in our lives they dont have to rule us. I just have been feeling blah mentally and I know it is my own doing. Coupled with me losing a fb friend to cancer and seeing one of my chemo friends in ICU kind of frazzled my brain :(. I have my weekly chemo on Thursday. I will again meet with my Onc and see what the plan is since I jumped once again out of NED :(. I thought by now Vanessa this would get easier as the years go on. However, I see with your experiences and what cancer did with you this is an ongoing work in progress. God Bless you Vanessa and your family. I hope that you are going to the conference. Your friend. Michael

Good Morning Vanessa!  Thank you for friending me :) And thank you for the great input for my party plan...a little nervous but I put the word out to two family members and they got all excited, it was kinda weird but I was happy, Colon cancer  blue/white will definitely be a part of the theme! We were thinking of a "A Blue Winter Lua"?  Course, the weather may depict everything! But we will march on with whatever comes at us!! I was looking at the Oriental Trading Party favor magazine too, I don't have a lot of money to spend, not sure of food and such, maybe have people bring some apps, dessert or something....I know they will all want to jump in and help which is great but i wanted to do something for them...Yikes!

Hi Vanessa, thank you fro friending me. You are a big inspiration to me as you were dx in 2002. I was dx in 2005. How has your health been. I am currently NED and still taking chemo. Its an off and on process unfortunately for me. I hope to hear more amazing stories from you:), God Bless you and your family.

Vanessa, thanks for checking in with me. I have had a rough couple of weeks again. I was hospitalized again last week due to an infection somewhere in my body so I was in ICU for three days and in a regular room for 2. Finally discharged last Saturday. It has been rough and long but I hope I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Waiting to get my bilirubin numbers down to normal level and the plan is to start me on a new chemo and then discuss what kind of options after that such as more surgery or RFA etc.praying I am on the road to recovering so that I can move on with new treatment.

Hi Vanessa-I was just looking at your story/page.  I'm not sure if we've spoken before?  Forgive me if we did and I don't remember! LOL.

I see you had abdominal mets....just curious-how did you get rid of it?  Did you do hipec,,or some other surgery, or did chemo get rid of it? 

I'm glad to see you are doing so well-being diagnosed in 2002!  Such an inspiration you are!  Are you currently NED?  How often do you get scans/bloodwork?

It is so nice to meet you:o) 

Steph

Thanks Vanessa, I will do that but right now I am back in hospital due to my liver function bilirubin numbers being to high and they are working on getting them down this is my second time in less than 3 weeks that I have had to be admitted. some days I lose hope that they can do anything but I have to keep looking forward with hope so I will try calling you as soon as I get back home again thank you for taking the time to keep in touch..........

Hi Vanessa,

Thank you for your comment. Your reply gave me strength. I'll vanish my negative thought. Usually I try to be positive, but I have been very depressed and cried for no reasons all the time lately because of somebody's comment. My hair ALWAYS fell out and that also depressed me, too. My oncologist told me only 20% patients will be affected by hair loss. I'm the lucky one to be 20%.(*-*)

I'm very happy to join this site and get to know warm and caring persons like you. Thank you for always supporting me.

Oh! also thank you for letting me know about buddy program. that sounds great. I just need to get up 6am...(usually I get up 10am. lol).

Hi Vanessa, I am so happy to meet another "4" survivor.  Our survivorship is inspiring to others that are just experiencing this darn disease. You have the best attitude possible to see you through these issues. I was dx in 2005 and I see you were dx in 2002. You have alot of experience and stories under your belt and you are an inspiration to me as well:). Keep up the wonderful things that you are doing to staying positive and NED. Take care. Michael

Hello Vanessa! Thank you for your comment and friend request.

Wow, you are a fighter. I admire your great spirit.

My friends and co workerers were like that, too. Right after my surgery, many people were visiting me in a hospital, lots of encourage phone calls and text messages. I was so surprised to find out so many people cared about me. Then, month pass by, less phone calls and text messages, eventually almost none.

People think that my surgery was succesful and my condition is very stable now. But they don't understand that I suffer from side effects from chemo therapy(my body was very sensitive) and still need emotional support and their encouragement give me strengh to go thorough this journey.

Sometimes I ask myself, "Am I wrong to rely on people so much?"."Am I being selfish to expect people to check on me sometime?", "Am I needy?"

Do you know how I can find colon cancer patients/survivor locally? I find lots of breast cancer support group in Hawaii but not for colon cancer. I want to connect with people who can share similar experience and get more active.  In past 5mo., I cooped up in a house except doc visit and grocery shopping. So, I don't talk to people in days and I'm going to be insane(+.+). Please give me any advice.  Thank you!