*I also asked myself the same question as yours. I was diagnosed in 1998
with anal cancer ( which is treated only by radiotherapy and chemo, no
surgery ). The doctor who diagnosed me told me it was serious ( perirectal
lymphnode involved ) he rushed for me to have complementary exams, such as
endorectal sonogram and CT scan .... then told me that I would be put on a
WAITING LIST and that they would call me when there would be room for me in
the radiotherapy ward...

Of course, I got very mad, so did my husband and I eventually went to
another hospital where I received my first treatment after a week or so.

Apparently, waiting a couple of weeks is not dangerous. My step mother was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer in  July. She told her surgeon she intended to
be away for vacation for one month and he agreed. She got her surgery only
in early September.

Don't worry anyway; it's like that for everyone .... It's probably a better
sign for you than if they had decided that you had to have your treatment
start within 24 hours of your diagnosis; this would have meant it was much
more serious than what you have.

Good luck for your journey with cancer.

Regine

Hi Joe,
Was the surgery open or laparoscopic ? If the former, I would expect a month's healing, the latter two
weeks at least, regardless of how you felt, then there was a PET scan in there and paperwork for the
clinical trial, and Christmas and New Year's..bureaucracy sometimes slows down a bit because of
holidays..
J-wondering

I think it depends.  I was dx in October, 2002.  Did not have the surgery
until dec. 20.  In between there were a number of tests.  My GI doc said
that colon cancer is typically very slow growing.

nobody@nospam.com said...

Probably because the symptoms that are first noticed could be due to
a number of things.  Can you imagine going to a doctor with
something and him saying to you "Well it could be cancer" straight
off?  Can you imagine what that would do to some people?  It's such
a serious diagnosis that I would think the medics would want to rule
out every other possibility first.  Rectal bleeding can be a sign of
inflammatory bowel disease, or haemorrhoids, or even just a small
cut or scratch.  And yes, it can also be a sign of cancer.  But can
you imagine being told you might have cancer when all the time it is
just piles?  I think it's much better for the medics to be certain
of their diagnosis before dropping such a bombshell, especially as
the word 'cancer' still carries such an awful stigma with some
people.  I am not a doctor, so I don't *know* - but FWIW I'd be
prepared to take a bet (except that I don't do betting) that it's
not far from the truth.  Certainly I would expect a GP to go through
several options before referring to an oncologist unless he was sure
in his own mind right from the start that cancer was a possibility.

You had surgery at the end of Novernber, most oncologists like to wait  at
least 6 weeks for healing to complete. Surgery is a major stress on your
body it takes awihile  for your body to get back to a good baseline. The
majority of the tumor ( I assume ) was removed with the surgery and the
chemo is just cleaning up the rest of the cancer. I agree the wait is
horrible!
In answer to some other of your questions, chemo needs to be given in a vein
that is large and stable....the veins in your legs tend to be very difficult
to access and unstable for infusion. The chemo nurses are experts in this
area if their is a vein they will find it but your port will eliminate that.
As far as the power of positive thinking it has been proven  people who have
a good attitude have better outcomes. I am a member of the Wellness
Community
http://www.thewellnesscommunity.org/about/about.htm I find this a wonderful
organization which believes in  patient empowerment.
Alex