Content Overview 
- Summary
- Additional Tests Which May Be Recommended
- Colorectal Cancer Is Not What It Used To Be
- How To Make A Colorectal Cancer Treatment Decision
- Goals To Consider When Deciding About Whether To Take A Treatment
- Commit Yourself To Doing Everything You Can To Reach Your Goal(s)
- How To Choose The Best Available Doctors And Surgeons
- Colon and Rectal Cancer: Standard Treatments
- Questions To Ask Before Agreeing To A Treatment
- What To Do When It Is Recommended That You Take A Medication
- Take Someone With You To Doctor Appointments (Patient Advocates)
- Tools That Will Make The Process Easier
- Use Your Diagnosis As A Wake Up Call To Start A Healthy Lifestyle
Colorectal Cancer: Managing Your Medical Care: Diagnosis to Treatment Decision
Colorectal Cancer Is Not What It Used To Be
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- Things have become much better for men and women with colorectal cancer.
- For the great majority of people, colorectal cancer is treatable. What used to be a fatal disease has become more like a chronic condition.
- What you know about what happened to other people with colorectal cancer is not necessarily what will happen to you. Even if another person's cancer is the same type as yours, every case is highly individual. No one can precisely predict what the course of your condition will be, or how any individual will respond to a particular treatment. This uncertainty is reason for hope.
- Treatments today involve less chance of the need for an ostomy and other side effects.
- If an ostomy is more than temporary after treatment, there are a variety of tips that can help you return to a positive body image and to have sex and intimacy. Experience indicates that physical relations between couples ultimately return to being satisfying and loving. Single people can successfully return to dating.
- Colorectal cancer can be talked about openly, even at work, if you choose to.
- Emotional support from other people who are experiencing or have experienced colorectal cancer or caring for someone with the disease is available in group settings (support group or self help group) and/or one-on-one with a cancer buddy - including over the internet. (You can also learn a lot of practical information from other people dealing with the same situation). You can find a support group or a buddy by calling the Colon Cancer Alliance Hotline 877.422.2030 or by going to ccalliance.org/volunteer/buddy_program.html
For additional information about these subjects, see “To Learn More.”
To Learn More
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