Chemoembolization scheduled for Thursday
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Brigitte….you did it, congratulations. Happy to hear the procedure went well and you are plagued by little discomfort. Interesting to hear that they were able to access the artery in your arm, you are the first to report on that. I hope others undergoing similar treatment will mention this to their physicians as well.
Glad you enjoyed the shopping trip – a cure all for many of us.Hope you can relax a bit and get ready for session No. 2.
Thinking of you and sending tons of hugs your way,
Marion
I had the chemo embolization done on Thursday. I went in at 7:00 AM and they let me go home at 18:00 It was not as scary as I thought it would be. The 2 doctors were very nice and explained everything and the nurses were also very nice. It took 3 hours for the doctors to work on one of the tumors and I have to go back in a couple of weeks for part 2 to work on the second tumor. I was awake but dopey and didn’t feel a thing. They actually went through my left arm artery by the inside of my wrist, not my groin. They said it was a new procedure that works on patients who have good arm arteries and the recovery time is shorter. The only sign is bruising and a bit of swelling. They didn’t finish the first tumor as the little booger was feeding off 4 blood vessels, so they worked on 3 and will finish the 4th one when they go in to do the second tumor. They injected a strong chemo called DOXORUBICIN directly into the tumor and than closed the blood vessel which is what they will do to the second tumor. Side affect are minimal, I am tired, a bit achy and a my digestive system was a bit irritated and yesterday I couldn’t digest my food very well. Mentally, on Saturday, I felt a bit unbalanced and lost. So, went shopping with my daughter and wore myself out, so felt tired but “normal” when I got home. Not that I am usually normal! LOL
! I am hoping that this will let me go into remission and I can relax a bit for a while. Again, thank you all for your support . xx
BrigitteCatherine, Marion and Julie thank you for the info and encouragement. I will be glad when it is done as anxiety while waiting is a bit tough, but I will get through it. I will let you know how it went.
Julie you are an inspiration to me and I wish you all the very best and send you big hugs.
BrigitteHi,
I am still searching for the article Gavin posted which made me discuss chemoembo with Mom’s doc ( it had great results and gave me the courage to say lets kill the tumor while we can). Although for Mom we went with Y-90, the attack seems to be the same.
Going through my files, I also found the one below-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21833806PURPOSE:
This study was designed to investigate the clinical outcome of patients with irresectable, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC) treated with computed tomography (CT)-guided HDR-brachytherapy (CT-HDRBT) for local tumor ablation.Although not all were “cured” “, 4 of 15 did not get further chemotherapy and are regarded as disease-free”—- those results gave me the hope I needed although they were contrary to what we were told was possible ( this study was on irresectable patients).
Memory is I brought this study and the chemoembolization one to our ONC to say we wanted to kill the one tumor while we could. We are thankful that it worked, and I am optimistic that it can for you too.
With Mom, they still don’t say cured, but after being told one-year prognosis, 3 years disease/treatment free is what I hope someday is the norm for all here.
love and hugs,
CatherineHey….I did remember something about chemo-embolization. I once ….about a year+ ago, talked to a gal whose mother was initially treated here locally with Gem/Cis, which did not stop the CC. Her mom decided to refer herself to Mayo/Rochester, where an onc put her on a different chemo and eventually did chemo-embolization. At the time I talked to this lady, her mom had been in remission for quite a while….way past the time period the local onc gave her. In fact, when she went back to the local guy…..his response was, “You’re still alive?” Anyway…..after the chemo-embolization, the lady was just living her life. I only talked to the daughter one time and wouldn’t be able to get in touch with her again. But, I thought I’d relay this to you. It isn’t much, but it’s something.
Brigitte….I only want to add to Cahterine’s great comments that nothing came easy to you, but the results have been great so far.
Chemoembolization has been used successfully for this cancer and you may very well have the fantastic outcome as that of Catherine’s mom. As mentioned, put the trust in the physicians, they have the experience and want the best outcome for you.It’s totally normal to feel anxious. Most likely you will be given a sedative prior to the procedure so why not treat your anxiety prior to Thursday? Just make sure to mention it to the physician.
Hang in there, we are with you, all the way.
Hopefully someone else will chime in and help ease your mind about this procedure.
Hugs
MarionI have no experience with chemo-embolization, but it sounds like a good thing to do. EVERYthing seems to have something scarey about it …., but the alternative, doing nothing, isn’t a good alternative. Every time I go to the clinic or hospital for anything now, I want to turn around and leave. But, we put one foot in front of the other and move forward. I know you’ll do the same. I read something recently posted on Facebook….it went something like this:
“Fear forms character, character forms perserverance and perserverance forms HOPE. “.
Will look forward to hearing about your results and telling us what the chemo-embolization was really like. It would help a lot of people in the future who might read your post on here.
Julie
You got this. I’m not sure what you saw to make you apprehensive, but when I was looking for treatments for Mom, chemoembolization seemed to offer hope for long-term survival. (read the warnings on tylenol and it will drive you to valium too- (just don’t read the warnings on the Valium because we want to keep that in the mix)
You did your research, now it’s time to trust the docs. I am excited about hearing your success in the future. We never imagined my Mom’s success, but it can happen.
Best wishes,
CatherineI am nervous about the procedure this coming Thursday. I have to be there at 7 AM and will spend the night in the hospital. I looked up some info on this procedure and it was a mistake! scary. I do hope that the procedure will eradicate of the main tumor, not sure if they will do the small one or not at the same time. So, in the meantime, I am anxious, feel indecisive about every thing,. Took a valium today to settle down.
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