chemoembollization
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Hi Michele – the embolization went well. The side effects from the second treatment have been a complete 180 degrees from the first. He was very nauseous for the first 3 days following the treatment, but is fine now. He has had very little pain, which with the first was so intense, but this time he stayed on top of his pain meds from the time he got out of the procedure. Which I think I key to this treatment, it seems that if you let the pain or nausea advance too much, it is hard to get it under control. A week after the treatment, Fred is pretty much back to his normal self. He has cut down on the pain meds only taking 2 in the morning and 2 at bedtime. He still tires easily and has been taking a nap most afternoons, but we are back to our normal busy routine. Fred is a teacher so he is enjoying the summer off with our two girls (9 and 5 yrs.). I can
Hi Colleen, hope the 2nd embollization went OK? My husband goes through it next week. Have been enjoying normal life for past 10 days, no pain, good energy, back to work. If this treatment works, and we learn to control the side effects better, this is do-able. We are considering doing systemic chemo along with the chemo ( no data available for this but onc suggested we try it), taking Xeloda which he reacted well in the past. Oxycodone worked well for him and we also switched to Oxycontin after a bit.
Tom was diagnosed in late Feb, 11cm tumor on right lobe and 2 tumors under 3cm on left lobe. No other sites.
Hoping it went well for you this time…Thanks for your reply Colleen. Sorry about the delay in replying.
The drug alluding spheres is when chemoembollization is done with spheres filled with chemo that are shot through the catheter by the interventional radiologist ( a yop guy at Georgetown”s Lombardi Center). This technique is fairly new but thought to be less traumatic as the spheres release the chemo only in the liver and very little goes through the system. The spheres then help choke off the blood supply to the tumor. He is having a 2nd one in mid July, and after a tough first week, now he is simply tired with some pain in the liver area and shoulder ( which we are trying to find the right painkiller as Oxycodone stopped working after 6 days). He is able to go to work ( shorter days) and feels basically better each day. Pretty similar to your husband, and next week he will be on a systemic drug Xeloda to keep up the battle while waiting for the next round.
We are also hoping for successful reduction and or stabilization-and would be interested in your feedback after the 2nd embollization is done to your husband.
Good luck – will be looking for your posts in the future. Our oncolHi Michele-
I am not sure what you mean by “drug alluding spheres,” but my 37 year old husband was diagnosed with CC the end of March, and had his first chemoembolization on May 1. The proceedure was a breeze as was the following day, then the pain hit him like a ton of bricks on day 3, and he was basically out of it for the next 4 – 5 days. His recovery was slow at first, he was very tired, didn’t eat much and his color wasn’t good, he was able to wean off the pain meds after about 3 – 4 weeks and is now back to his normal self although he still tires easily. He had a comprison MRI done on May 25th, and it showed that approximately 25% of the tumor cells were dead, but there was no shrinkage in the tumor size. His tumor is large also, 8.3 cm x 8.9 cm, so resectioning is out of the question. He is scheduled for his second embolization on June 26th, with a followup MRI on July 17th, then they will decide if they will do a third embolization. We were told that they will do as many as 3 back to back, then they will monitor the tumor for any growth for a few months before proceeding with anymore treatments. I have read a ton of information about this proceedure and like anything there mixed opinons about its effectiveness, hopefully for both of our husbands it will be effective.Last week my husband underwent chemoembollization on the right lobe of the liver. This procedure was done by “drug alluding spheres” a fairly new process, and the procedure is a targeted chemo that is fairly contained in the liver area. The follow up was needlesslly rough on him.. The pain started approx 12 hrs later and because the hospital let it get ahead of him ( long typical hospital story) it took him awhile to get on his feet again ( 2 1/2 days). He is home now -and has been very very tired, a little pain ( mainly from constipation from the meds), mild nausea, and after seeing our oncologist today we have hopes that these procedures will get easier ( he will have it done again in 6 weeks and possibly a 3rd time -big tumor) and do what they are supposed to do…blast the sucker from the inside out, so we can get good liver tissue back and possible resection.
If any of you have had this procedure -would be interested in your feedback, if you need more info on it ( nothing much online), I can tell you that this is meant to contain and reduce the growth of the cancer. So far, it has been a bit rough on him but not too bad, am most people seem to sail through it after a few days.
Will post again to let you know how it is working out for him.
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