Stop chemo now or continue?
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I would honor Marina’s wishes. Life is short, and decisions are not easy. What is good for one is not good for someone else. My mother opted to have no chemotherapy at all. It destroyed me, but it was her body and her decision and I had to respect it. She is one tough cookie, and she did things her way, and I respect her strength and determination to stick to what she wanted and did not waiver.
I hope chemo goes well. I remember now that they lowered my dose as well and it was a little more tolerable. Here’s hoping for no side effects!
-Randi-Eli,
Yes, my chemo was split. 3cycles then radiation then 3 more cycles. I’m glad you came to a decision. I hope chemo goes well. Let us know.
Susie
Eli…It must feel good to have come to a decision. Congratulations. Onward to the next cycles.
Hugs to Marina and you.
MarionWe just came back from the ONC appointment. He wasn’t too concerned about Marina’s symptoms. Blood test was fine. We decided to go ahead with the 5th cycle next week. They will reduce chemo doze by 5% to adjust for Marina’s weight loss. Pound for pound, the doze stays the same. 5th cycle brings us to the end of March. We are scheduled to do CT scan early in April. We will reconsider our options after the scan.
Thank you all for the feedback!!
Susie and Randi:
Thank you so much for your replies. You have been in my wife’s shoes… I appreciate the chance to hear your thoughts. You both expressed the same sentiment, that you wanted to complete the recommended cycles to have no regrets if cancer comes back. Marina had the exact same attitude when she started chemo. She lost her resolve a little bit by the end of the 4th cycle. She’s been feeling better the last couple of days. I think she is coming around to the idea of continuing chemo.
Susie: yes, lots of similarities between your and my wife’s treatments. One difference, if I remember correctly: your chemo was split wasn’t it? 3 cycles before radiation, 3 cycles after?
Randi: your case is kind of similar too. Whipple followed by chemo. You mentioned you had 6 cycles of Gemzar. Was it Gemzar alone or with another agent?
Eli,
Like the others, I want to acknowledge what a tough choice this is. I had 6 rounds of Gemzar after whipple surgery. I opted not to do the radiation because I didn’t feel like they gave me enough good reasons to do it. I was really on the fence about chemo as well. They offered it to me but had no real evidence that someone like me (clean margins, no lymph node involvement) would benefit from it. My husband was pretty convincing about wanting me to to do it and have no regrets (which is sort of how the doc presented it as well).
Chemo is no picnic, even the ones that they say are “tolerated” well. By the 5th and 6th cycle I was really beaten down and had had an intestinal blockage that landed me in the hospital for a few days. I would have done anything not to have any more chemo at that point, so I understand where your wife is at with this.
I guess I’ve not given you any answer here except to go with your gut feeling. There are no right or wrong answers here.
Good luck with your decision! Take care.
-Randi-Eli,
This is tough, as you know. So, if you remember, your wife and I are kind of similar. Radiation about killed me, chemo was not so bad. However, my last 2 cycles of gem/cis made my hemoglobin/hematocrit fall off a cliff. I was doing fine until then. My oncologist was kind of hesitant to give me more chemo after radiation because radiation made me so sick and chemo isn’t proven, but I pushed for it, she agreed and said we would stop it if I got sick. I was able to finish my 6 cycles. Now, I have no idea why 6 cycles is the magic number. All I know is that is what was originally recommended so that is what I wanted. If my cancer comes back, I can rest easy knowing I got my full 6 cycles of chemo and full 6wks of radiation. Did it help me? Did it hurt me? Time will tell, but I hated the idea of looking back thinking I didn’t get some type of treatment. My husband also encourages me to get treatment because he says he is selfish and wants me around, but he also says he would support my decision to stop.
It’s such a tough choice. I’m not sure what you should do here. I guess, ultimately the choice is hers. For me, the chemo had more bad effects towards the last 2 cycles, so maybe if she is already having issues it would be best to stop??
Sorry, I know I played both sides here and am probably not being very helpful, but it’s not an easy choice. Just know we will obviously support whatever decision the two of you make. Keep us updated.Take care,
SusieEli….”what would you do if it were you or your loved one”? This question relieves the physician from advising you, but gives you enough information to toss around. If it were me, I would await the March scan results and quit chemo, if nothing shows up.
Tough question indeed, but so often in life we need to make a decision based on our gut feelings.
Fingers crossed.
Hugs
MarionPercy, a big thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it.
Yes, I know, the chance of recurrence is very high. That’s why I’m leaning towards more cycles of chemo. Will two extra cycles make a difference? No one knows. It’s a tough choice.
Lainy, we don’t know what the ONC will say. I guess it partly depends on what the blood tests will show on Friday.
I know this though… when he doesn’t have a strong opinion one way or the other, he is very careful not to steer us in any direction. He usually presents the options and leaves the choice to us.
Taking a little break is a sound idea. I doubt I can sell it to Marina. She wants to resume normal life asap, go back to work, etc.
Lainy, as always, I appreciate your feedback.
Hi,Eli,
Last scan was Demceber,so can your wife have another one in March ,then you can decide together with your wife to have chemo or not.
My personal gut feeling is that it doesn’t matter you have 4 or 6 cycles but the chance forCCA to recur is very high even if you wife agree to have the chemo for a year or more. And when it comes back then you and your wife will fight again.But in the meantime, take a chemo vacation if the March cat scan is stable or show tumor shrinkage..
I took 14 month of gemcitabine, 8 month more than usual with a clean margin of 1.5cm. But the CCA still came back after 6 month of stopping the chemo. I will avoid any chemo if I could if it recur again, Chemo is no picnic even just for gemcitabine only, not to mention if ,like your wife,had the CISPLATIN ,a much tough chemo agent to take and the side effects are tough to swallow.
God bless.
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