From Colon Cancer Diagnosis to Farewell at the Hospice: The Last 1,500 Days with My Mom | Patient Story

In the early hours of March 15, 2026, Shelry sat by her mother's bedside in a hospice ward in Leshan.

Her mother had fallen into a deep sleep the previous afternoon, exhibiting "nodding" respiration: her head would gently nod with each breath. This is a distinct rhythm of physical decline.

Shelry wrote in her phone notes: "Mom, you can finally get a good sleep, without having to stay awake feeling breathless, bone pain, and abdominal bloating."

"My only wish is not for you to wake up and look at me again, but to pass away peacefully like this."

She didn't read these words to her mother. This perfectly matched their usual way of interacting: relying on each other, yet rarely exposing vulnerability.

The next afternoon, her mother's heart stopped in a coma.

Over 1,500 days, more than 10 treatment plans were tried, and they visited 14 hospitals.

Shelry wrote all this in her notes, like a checklist, and also like an unsent letter.

—————
Author | Shelry, Wujiu
Editor | Wujiu

「 I 」

In December 2021, her mother was 53, recently retired, and living a leisurely life. "During that time, she felt uncomfortable in her liver area, so she went for a physical exam with a friend." The results showed a space-occupying lesion in the liver. Step by step, she was diagnosed with sigmoid colon cancer with liver metastasis.

"A doctor at the exam center was a friend of my mother's. She told us sadly, 'If you try hard to treat it, she might live for five years.'"

Shelry had been working in Guangdong and had just resigned and returned. She grew up with her mother, and they always had a great relationship. Her stepfather asked a friend to arrange for her mother to be admitted to a hospital in Chengdu where West China Hospital experts regularly visited.

No gene mutations were found, and the treatment plan was quickly determined: cetuximab combined with triple-drug chemotherapy, aiming to fight for a chance at surgery. At that time, Shelry wasn't deeply involved; she went to work as usual every week and visited her mother on weekends, thinking it was best to just follow the doctor's arrangements.

After seven rounds of chemotherapy, the results were not ideal. The tumors didn't shrink significantly; some even grew a bit. The visiting West China Hospital doctor suggested switching to second-line treatment.

The attending doctor whispered to Shelry, "Go apply for an MDT at West China Hospital, otherwise, you might have even fewer chances after switching to second-line."

The multidisciplinary consultation results at West China Hospital were very good, and the hepatobiliary surgeon scheduled liver surgery for a month later. That day was the happiest for the family since the diagnosis. They celebrated with Cantonese food near West China Hospital: "We thought we'd be stuck in endless chemotherapy with no end in sight, but a turning point suddenly appeared."

On May 30, 2022, the liver surgery went very smoothly, and the doctor said the tumors were removed cleanly. "After two rounds of postoperative chemotherapy, you can prepare for the intestinal surgery." However, due to the pandemic, family members were not allowed to accompany patients under seventy. Her mother was scared and panicked, but in the end, she dragged her suitcase into the inpatient department alone.

The surgery was performed by Director Wang from West China Hospital. That day, she stood downstairs in the inpatient department all day. "But after waiting for ten hours, the phone call notifying us that the surgery was done never came. When we called to ask, we found out the surgery had been finished long ago; the caregiver just forgot to notify the family."

Perhaps due to the multiple rounds of chemotherapy, her postoperative recovery was very slow. Her mother had a gastric tube inserted and cried in pain on the video call. "It was 10 days before we could see her, and she had lost a lot of weight."

The doctor told her that this surgery also removed two tiny metastatic lesions on the peritoneum, and the left adnexa was prophylactically removed.

Both surgeries were successful, and all lesions were completely cleared. Shelry felt that this battle was almost over.

「 II 」

A month after surgery, the follow-up showed all indicators were normal. However, after three rounds of adjuvant chemotherapy, the whole family tested "positive" for COVID. Her mother had a high fever for two days and even went to the emergency room for tachycardia.

Barely getting through it and finishing the last chemotherapy in the plan, in February 2023, the night before going to West China Hospital for a follow-up, Shelry saw the blood test results on her mother's phone in the hotel: the carcinoembryonic antigen had doubled from before.

After a brief breakdown, she decided not to tell her mother yet, just saying the results weren't out. The next day at the outpatient clinic, the doctor pointed at the imaging and said many new tumors had grown in the pelvis.

Hearing this, Shelry and her mother came out and sat on a bench by the door, crying. "People waiting nearby saw us and came over to comfort us. After enduring so much suffering and two surgeries, everything was back to square one."

The doctor suggested joining a clinical trial, otherwise, third-line drugs would be used. Shelry went to communicate and learned that PD-L1 gene positivity was required to join, which had a very low probability, and she would have to stop the medication and wait for the screening results.

"Just then, I joined the Panda group and started reading guidelines and learning about side effect management myself." Before the genetic results came out, Shelry began to hesitate, "The chance of joining the trial is slim, and the risk of delaying is too high."

She booked the doctor's appointment three times in a row to ask if there were better options, "only to be told by the doctor that she wanted 'everything all at once'."

In the end, Shelry chose a third-line regimen with relatively good data at the time: bevacizumab combined with TAS-102. "At that time, TAS-102 wasn't covered by medical insurance, costing about 7,000 to 8,000 RMB out-of-pocket per month."

「 III 」

A month after starting the medication, Shelry heard in the Panda group that Professor Deng from the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou was supporting the First Affiliated Hospital in Chongqing.

With a glimmer of hope, in April 2023, she went to Chongqing alone with organized medical records, imaging, and surgical records. President Deng ordered a PET-CT, but the results were even more disheartening: metastases had appeared in the liver, lungs, and sacrum.

Facing such results, President Deng told her, "It's okay, there are still many options available." This sentence slightly calmed Shelry.

After comprehensive consideration, President Deng's proposed regimen was regorafenib combined with sintilimab, along with radiotherapy.

After returning home, Shelry didn't tell her mother the truth, only saying the tumors in the pelvis had grown a bit and they needed to change the plan. Her mother had said before that she was most afraid of bone metastasis. "In her perspective, a distant relative died of 'pain' from colon cancer bone metastasis, so she was particularly terrified of bone problems."

From that day on, Shelry began a three-year concealment. Every time she communicated with the doctor, she had to do it behind her mother's back. When face-to-face, she would type on her phone to remind the doctor not to slip up. She carefully hid all examination materials so her mother wouldn't see them.

The radiotherapy was ultimately decided to be done at the Sichuan Cancer Hospital, over twenty consecutive sessions, ten minutes each day. This regimen worked surprisingly well; the pelvic tumors shrank significantly, and the carcinoembryonic antigen dropped from over 50 to 5.

But the joy didn't last long; her mother developed jaundice, her whole body turning yellow. Transaminases were at 1,600, and bilirubin at 70. "It was unclear whether it was immune hepatitis or caused by traditional Chinese medicine or some other drug." After a month of liver-protective treatment at a local hospital, her mother's condition barely recovered, and the anti-tumor drugs were stopped for a full month.

Her mood fluctuated with the indicators, feeling fearful, exhausted, and very helpless.

In October 2023, President Deng returned to Guangzhou from Chongqing. Shelry originally wanted to switch to a local doctor in Sichuan, but encountered an expert with a "big entourage" who seemed to "deliberately" communicate in English. "I thought about it and decided to keep following President Deng." From then on, Shelry began her cross-province medical journey, flying to Guangzhou every two or three months.

[Taking the high-speed train to Guangzhou with the hope of CR]

「 IV 」

For every treatment plan and indicator, Shelry recorded them clearly through charts. But the results of her efforts always seemed unsatisfactory. "The follow-up showed the lesions were progressing again." She changed medications several times, but the effects were mediocre.

In mid-November 2023, her mother began to have massive bloody stools that couldn't be stopped. Shelry consulted the doctor, who suspected radiation enteritis caused by radiotherapy, and a stoma was needed to solve it.

Her mother loved beauty; upon knowing this, she cried and made a scene, refusing to accept it. But after breaking down, perhaps considering her family's feelings, she finally accepted the outcome.

"At that time, a fellow patient from Leshan in the Panda group was being treated at Shenzhen Second People's Hospital and helped us contact Director Cai's team, securing a bed."

On Thursday, Shelry was still in Guangzhou getting the treatment plan. On Friday, she flew back to Leshan. On Sunday, she took her mother and flew to Shenzhen, and on Monday, they were admitted to the hospital.

The stoma surgery was very successful. After returning home, Shelry prepared medication to give her mother enemas every day. "The bloody stools completely stopped within a month." She also learned stoma care herself, changing the baseplate, attaching the rings... learning bit by bit by asking people in the group. "I slowly learned how to do it."

Looking back, Shelry recalled that 2024 was the most stable period in recent years. Fruquintinib monotherapy worked very well; for a whole year, aside from blood tests and getting medication, she didn't have to be hospitalized again.

Although the bone metastasis sites started to hurt and she needed painkillers, her mother could still go out for walks. "She took a trip to Guilin, and I finally had time to do aerobics and exercise. I lost nearly 30 jin in ten months."

[Photos taken while Mom was traveling]

「 V 」

A year later, she developed resistance to fruquintinib. Changing the regimen, then changing again, neither worked well. In July 2025, the surface of her mother's stoma suddenly sprayed blood like a fountain, filling a 500ml bag in a minute. "The local hospital could only give blood transfusions; it couldn't solve the root problem."

Shelry went to the stoma clinic at the provincial cancer hospital herself. They said they could handle it, so she quickly took her mother there, only to be told upon arrival that the ruptured vessels were tiny and could only heal on their own.

During that time, her mother's urine output decreased, and her stools were all black water. Shelry was extremely anxious, and her mother then developed a severe infection, with procalcitonin soaring to over 20. "Coupled with severe dehydration from diarrhea and a surge in creatinine, the hospital issued a critical condition notice."

A series of chain reactions left her physically and mentally exhausted. It was the first time Shelry felt that life was truly so fragile, and death seemed just a step away.

"Fortunately, we met a responsible doctor who used advanced antibiotics. After holding on for two weeks, the infection was finally suppressed, and the bleeding inexplicably stopped."

During hospitalization, perhaps due to the compression from pelvic tumors, her mother was found to have severe left hydronephrosis. The doctor said if they delayed any longer, the kidney would be lost. But her mother already had a stoma bag; she found it hard to accept having a urine bag attached as well.

Shelry begged the doctor to try a regular stent, but the doctor assessed that it couldn't be placed temporarily under the current condition. "In the end, a temporary nephrostomy was done first, and my mom had another bag on her body."

The kidney crisis was averted, but her mother's stoma bled massively again after a trip to the toilet. "After the bleeding stopped and she was wheeled to the stoma clinic, it was the same words—it can only heal on its own."

Recalling these painful experiences, Shelry appeared remarkably calm. Facing one tricky problem after another, she felt she didn't have time to be sad; she could only face them.

Shelry didn't want to give up, so she contacted Shenzhen Second People's Hospital again, where her mother had her stoma surgery. "They said to come over, there are still beds."

Shelry immediately bought high-speed rail tickets to Shenzhen for her and her mother. She bought two business class seats so her mother could lie down. She also carried hemostatic drugs and stoma supplies, checking under her clothes every now and then, anxious all the way, terrified of another massive bleed.

[Photos taken by Shelry during the surgery at Shenzhen Second People's Hospital]

Arriving at Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Director Cai's team sutured the bleeding points, gave blood and protein transfusions, and the bleeding issue was finally resolved. "After returning to Leshan, West China Hospital also called, saying we could try placing a ureteral stent." After the nephrostomy was reversed, her mother finally had one less bag on her body.

「 VI 」

Due to repeated setbacks, her mother had to stop her medication for three months.

In December 2025, the follow-up imaging indicated significant progression. "President Deng said, 'What a pity.' The tumor burden was already very large, and the swelling in her left leg was most likely due to tumor compression."

The doctor had her mother undergo another biopsy, and the result was still wild-type. "So they let us try going back to the first-line regimen of cetuximab combined with oxaliplatin and fluorouracil."

Shelry remembered President Deng telling her, "If it works, she has half a year."

After the first chemotherapy, the carcinoembryonic antigen dropped from 230 to 130. "The medicine seemed to be working, but both of my mom's legs swelled up, and later, ascites developed."

Following the principle of prioritizing physical comfort, Shelry took her mother to Chengdu Seventh People's Hospital for conditioning. After draining the ascites, her right leg's swelling went down, but her left leg developed a blood clot due to long-term edema.

After three rounds of chemotherapy, it was already close to the 2026 Spring Festival. Although she felt terrible, her mother insisted on attending three family gatherings. "Sitting was already uncomfortable for her, but she gritted her teeth and made it through every meal." Shelry felt that perhaps her mother knew in her heart that this would be her last New Year.

One early morning, after using the toilet, her mother had another massive bleed. After the on-call surgeon handled it, a urinary catheter was inserted.

The next day, her mother's breathing started to sound abnormal, and she had to rely on an oxygen mask to maintain blood oxygen levels.

After a chest X-ray, the doctor told Shelry: severe pneumonia, lungs full of tumors, respiratory function couldn't recover, and she could run out of breath at any time. They needed to make plans early.

Shelry roughly understood.

Remembering her mother's solemn words about not going to the ICU and not being resuscitated, she coaxed her mother, saying the inflammation would require a long time of IV drips, so they might as well go back to Leshan first and find a nice place to stay.

Her mother agreed.

Holding back her sorrow, she contacted the local hospice ward and found a private ambulance to transfer her mother back.

On the way back from Chengdu to Leshan, her mother wore an oxygen mask, and Shelry sat quietly beside her.

The world became very quiet. In the hospice ward, Shelry stayed by her side without leaving, talking to her mother, but her mother no longer had the strength to respond.

The afternoon of the second day after admission, her mother fell into a deep sleep. Shelry told her many things she usually couldn't bring herself to say.

"I told my mom I love her very much, that I will take good care of myself, and that we will meet again in a few decades."

On March 16, 2026, her mother's heart stopped in a coma.

「 After You Left 」

Shelry still thinks about everything during the treatment. The best thing she did was "stepping out," not limiting herself to the medical level in Sichuan. The regret is that the massive bleeding was delayed too long; she should have gone to Shenzhen earlier. During the jaundice, she later learned that hormones could have brought it down faster instead of waiting a month in vain...

But life goes on.

She arranged the funeral affairs methodically, sorting out the process, dividing tasks, and finalizing details. With the help of relatives and friends, everything was completed smoothly; she also returned to work, living life to the fullest.

She thought to herself, Mom, I'm just as great as you, right?

When I finish the tasks of this life, remember to come get me.

One day, Shelry dreamed of her mother.

In the dream, she asked: Does it still hurt? Do you still have any illnesses?

Her mother said: No more.

To protect patient privacy, the names in the text are pseudonyms.
Images containing patient portraits have been authorized by the patient and are prohibited from use without permission.

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