Hello, Meinvan and other Teal Sisters
I, too, faced the possibility of a bowel resection and colostomy bag. My wonderful oncologist is excellent about giving me options, telling me her recommendation, and then letting me decide. She left the decision up to me: be aggressive and remove all the cancer she sees--even if that means removing part of the bowel--or leave some cancer to preserve the bowel and hope that the last rounds of chemo take care of it. As always, I went with her recommendation, which was the former option. It was a very difficult decision, and she told me I could tell her how I decided at the last minute, if I wanted to. I was fortunate enough not to require a bowel resection. I'd even met with an ostomy nurse at the local hospital (something I would NOT recommend, as it merely increased my anxiety).
This may be a strange thing to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. Probably everyone in this forum knows that cancer robs us of our sense of control. One thing that really helped me right before my surgery was handing a nurse my living will. Forgive me if that's too morbid, but I had brought it with me, assuming that it was so important that I'd remember it, but when the nurse asked me about it (I'd forgotten I had it with me), I nearly cried as I thanked her. Handing over those papers was one last act of control before I surrendered my life to the doctors' hands.
I'm thinking of you, Meinvan, and wishing you the best.