Husband Diagnosed in Early March with this…

Hi Treysam,

We so know what you mean with regards to what you say about my cousin tried X,Y or Z stuff! And also with trying to keep so many people informed of what is going on with your wife. It can get very tough trying to do that and also take up a lot of yours and your wife’s time. If I may suggest, how would you feel about writing in a blog? Many of our members do that and find that it helps them in many ways, and also, it can be a good way of keeping a lot of people informed at the same time. You could just tell them all to read yours or your wife’s blog if they want to know stuff! Here is a link to our blog page if that idea interests you –

http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb/viewforum.php?id=31

And as far as all of us really understanding what is going on, yep, we sure do and that certainly helped me when my dad was sick too! Keep coming back here and I am sure that it will help you too.

Best wishes,

Gavin

Thank everyone for your kind words. It is an interesting phenomenom to write on these boards. I thought I was past being emotional. It is so sad that people are having to deal with cancer. Not just the people with cancer but their spouses and family, friends etc. We need to be supportive of our spouse while handling a million questions of “how is your wife doing?” and “my cousin’s friend’s uncle ate this star fruit from madagascar and it cured him so….” It is good to have a release from people that really understand what is going on. Insurance, schedule, pain management, trying to say the right thing, all while finding the right balance of access for my wife that was the nurse for an OB/GYN for 28 years (70x3x52x28), 12 siblings on her side and 9 on mine, not to mention 200 church members has been a challenge. It was good and tough to here from Dorien here in Utah. I will try and be as positive as possible as I post, as this is a real factor in a cure!
Best wishes to all!

Treysam….a quick hello from me to you also; wishing the absolute best for Kevin today and continued shrinkage of your wife’s tumor.
I hope you don’t mind us butting in on your conversation with thebompie4 and for her to be able to read your posting. If we accidentally have caused a disruption please accept my apologies. In that case, you may want to repost your message to her.
Hugs,
Marion

Hi Dorien! Welcome to this amazing site. I am so sorry you had to find us, however. My husband was diagnosed in January this year. He went to his family doc with a chronic cough which resulted in an x-ray (nothing) then an MRI to rule out a blood clot (nothing in the lungs) and an enlarged lymph node was found in his abdomen. That was the week of Thanksgiving and started test after test, biopsy after biopsy. Finally, in January, we got the devastating diagnosis of CC. Ken is 58 and all our children are mostly grown (our last is finishing her junion year of college) but it has nevertheless been frightening. I have never worked full time since the children were born so thinking about medical insurance for myself and a way to simply survive alone has been overwhelming. Ken has stage IV so he is not a candidate for surgery so we are counting on the chemo (gem and carboplatin) to do everything possible. After his first scan since starting chemo, the onc said “he is trending in the right direction.” Ken was hoping she would say, “We can’t find any evidence of the cancer!” I’m sure everyone with this awful disease has hoped for that. But I have decided to do what everyone on this site recommends…live each day to the fullest, stay positive, hope for the best and laugh often. I still cry almost every day but for the most part I try not to dwell on all the unknowns. They can literally make me crazy. What I know is I have 4 amazing kids and 3 amazing in-law kids who are there for both of us which makes this a little easier to deal with.

My prayer for your husband is that the chemo will work with amazing results and at some point your husband will become a candidate for surgery. And for you that your family will draw close and celebrate every day you have had as well as wonderful days to come. God bless you!

Jayne