Trying to Navigate
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Wendy,
Welcome to this amazing family. I am glad to see you have been given some great links by Marion. These will get you started and give you tons of great information and education. Please keep us posted with updates and please don’t hesitate to come here for support! We are all here for you.
Hugs and prayers,
MelindaThank you so much for these links Marion – I am so appreciative of the help in navigating these waters. While I wish the reason didn’t exist for this site I am grateful for the support.
W
wbsj….I too would like to welcome you to our site. As Lainy mentioned, this cancer is complex and takes additional ears and eyes from family members and friends.
In order to help you understand better, you may want to take a look at the below link:
http://cholangiocarcinoma.org/newly-dx/
Our recorded videos provide clinically sound information and you can access with this link:
http://cholangiocarcinoma.org/videos/Many others are able to share their experience with abdominal fluid (ascities) and I hope that they chime in as well. Your mother in law will feel significantly better with this treatment.
In addition to Lainy’s suggestion you may also want to take a look at “Questions to ask the Doctor”
http://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/diagnosing-cancer/questions-ask-doctorSo glad you found us and please stay in touch. We are in this together.
Hugs
MarionThank you for your quick response and kind words. I will definitely update when I have more information!!
Dear Wendy, welcome to our remarkable family but wish you did not have to find us. It is really hard to give you answers to some of your questions as CC varies with each individual. Kind of a smart cookie, this monster! A lot depends on your MIL health before CC, her age, the stage she was DX at, and how she would take to various treatments.
Yes, it is a big shock when you begin but when a treatment plan is in place your fright will turn to fight! Once the abdomen is drained she should feel more comfortable. When the pain is lessened the energy has a chance to come back. It is hard to determine anything without the ONC telling you what kind of treatment she would be eligible for but when you go to see him do take a list of questions so you don’t forget anything. You may also want to take notes or take a tape recorder.
Wishing you the very best for your Mother-in-law and please keep us updated as we truly care.
Again the growth of the CC depends on each person, where it is located and how they respond to treatment. The most we know about CC is that we do not know enough yet but we are getting there. I do know it chooses the most wonderful people in the world. We try to remain realistically optimistic.Hello,
My Mother in law was recently diagnosed with CC and we as a family have been trying to navigate our way through what to expect. I’m sure as with most this has sent shockwaves through us as it seems that this has come out of nowhere!
We recently met with the surgical oncologist (who was fantastic) and we finally have some hard and fast information.
It appears the cancer has spread from the bile duct (where at stent has been placed) into the fluids and fatty tissues of her stomach (we do not however have any firm staging prognosis). This makes sense as she has been experiencing pretty severe bloating and pain in her right side. This pain is manageable without the aid of any pain killers during the day but she has been taking them to sleep at night. The surgeon was pleased with the level of pain at this manageable a level. The surgeon has scheduled an additional biopsy for her stomach and has also arranged for the fluid to be drained at the same time. Surgical resection is not an option for her.
Will this fluid drain help ease the pain? Will it help with her energy levels?
She will be meeting with an oncologist after this biopsy to go over further treatment plans. Are there any suggestions you can make as to questions that we can ask?
Also – this is how naive I am to this new world – is CC a slow growing or fast growing cancer? We don’t want to ask about time frames, however we want to be able to spend as much time as possible with her – based on her current pain levels i was optimistic about this!!
Thank you in advance for all of your help!!
W
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