Andy’s Story

I had noticed blood in my stool and went to doctor who then referred me for colonoscopy, dr informed me after colonoscopy that I had cancer and it looked like it had been there for a while . We were heading to Japan the following week and he organised a mri and ct scan before we left and we had arranged for to make a phone call to get results when I was in Japan .
It was devastating news to hear I had cancer and that it had spread to my liver and lungs as I have no family history of cancer it certainly was not the news I expected .
I have been through 12 rounds of folfox 6 and avastan chemo and it has shrunk the primary tumour and liver mets , lungs remained stable . I finished this end of October and then went onto maintenance chemo of just 3 weekly infusions of avastan .
Last week we got my latest ct results and it has showed the maintenance chemo is not working and my lung mets are growing and their is more of them so my oncologist has stopped all chemo and will go to another drug at some point after I recover a bit more from the last chemo
I am feeling very well at the moment and have been exercising , swimming up to 1400 metres and going to the gym so it was like getting dianosed all over again. .
We are heading back to Japan to see my wife’s family and tick off some of my bucket list things while I am feeling well .
 All though it is hard to accept when you first get diagnosed and when treatment is not working I have remained as positive as I can and have accepted what is coming , my main focus now is to enjoy what time I have left and still stay positive and happy and most of all support my wife and make sure she is well looked after .
 One thing I have realised that although it might be tough on the person diagnosed it is even harder on your partner and family , my wife is suffering from depression at the moment as she thinks about what’s ahead for her and this is what upsets me the most about cancer and its effects.
it is so hard to see my wife the way she is and I can see she is constantly worried about me . Quality of life is an important thing to me and I don’t want to be suffering in bad health for too long as I would not like to see my wife go through this either .