HELLO: AN Introduction

Hello, I’m Maria Andersson, 45, from Sweden. Living at the swedish westcoast, working (at the moment parttime) as a RN in ambulance. Married to Mikael, mother to Daniel 20. Love running and Ashtangayoga. And my dog, Elsa.

I found out I had cancer in April 2010. Intrahepatic CC with a big tumor 10×8 cm and more than 10 small ones, 1 cm, spread all over the liver = inoperable.

From May 2010 until Feb 2011 on Gemzar+Oxaliplatin (13 rounds) which I had to quit due to neuropathy. Then Gemzar+Xeloda, and finally a couple of rounds of Gemzar+Cisplatin nov-dec 2011. I’ve also had 5 chemoembolizations.
This coctail has made my tumors shrink a lot, and a few has disappeared. My MRI in Dec showed no circulation in all but two tumors, and I therefore wanted a break from chemo, which my doctor thougth was a good idea.
Feb 28 I have a new MRI, and of course I’m anxious to see what has happend during this break. I feel good though.

I’ m very grateful that I have been able to live such a good life during this treatment, running and working. I feel truly blessed!!

Maria

Hi, I am Margaret Lepp. I am 59 years old. My husband Tom was diagnosed with cc in March ’08, at the age of 61. He had no symptoms, but was having blood work done every 3 months because he was on a cholesteol lowering drung.

In June ’08 he had a successful liver resection with clear margins. He was in the hospital for 21 days. After going home on massive dosages of Antibotics, I became his caretaker, his strength, his advocate, etc. 18 months later he started turning Jaundiced. A new tumor was found and one of his oncologist told he there was nothing they could do, he had less than 6 months (at the most).

We sought 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinons. Each thought that radiation and chemo might help. He did all that but I could see that he was slowing going downhill. We made the best of his good days, and handled the bad days the best we could. He lived almost 2 years to the day when the doctor told him he had less than 6 months.

Thomas G. Lepp passed away on 11/20/2011 – he never gave up trying to KICK that cancer. His body just gave out, but he fought to the end. I knew the Monday before he passed that his kidneys were failing. He spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital. On Tuesday he told me to call all the kids. On Wed he told me he wanted to go home that he would not die in the hospital. He came home on Thursday, started on Hospice. He had a good day on Friday and the aides came in and gave him a bed bath, washed his hair and shaved him. On Saturday he rallied a bit and was talkative, not eating but drinking lots of fluids, not urinating at all. Sunday he slept most of the day, told me that he loved me more today than he did yesterday, and more than the day before that and more than all the days before that.

On Sunday late afternoon I asked him to open his baby blue eyes as I wanted to see them. He opened them and said “I love You”, those were his last words. He was waiting for our daughter and son in law to arrive, they got here from Iowa at about 6:30 pm and he passed away at 8:58pm.

From a caretaker’s standpoint, I would do it all over again if I could have him back with me for another 3 years 8 months.

I am Cathy Dunnagan 57, born and raised in northern Califronia. I been a midwesterner for 31 years in Wood River, IL, ( right across river from St. Louis MO.) I have been married for 27 years to my wonderful husband Jeff. We have an amazing 24 year old daughter, Cates who lives in Miami FL. I was enjoying a great life on July 30,2008, I had started my first “snow bird adventure” in January 2008 in Myrtle Beach SC . We had invested in a small permanent campsite on Kentucky Lake a, our small lawn care business was doing good and our daughter was entering her senior year at Murray State University! Life was sooo normal!! July 31, 2008 life CHANGED! I was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable CC, the journey began!! I survived chemo, radiation, and 2 liver transplants.
Thank you God, 2 strangers and Dr. William Chapman.
Proof there is HOPE-Cathy

Hello to all..my name is Nancy I’m 53 I live in Phillipsburg NJ which is in the western tip right on the Delaware River and about 2 minutes from Easton PA..thats why our athletic teams are called The Stateliners…Liners for short! I’m about an hour and 15 minutes from both NYC and Philly. I worked for a Drs office for 8 years started itching then thought I was getting a UTI..had urine culture run over the weekend went back to work on Monday…Doctor whisked me into the exam room as my eyes were yellow..told me I may need my gallbladder out..that is when the snowball started rolling…that was Oct of 2009. I had 2 biopsies one guided by ultrasound one by CT..diagnosis was inconclusive on both but highly suspicious for CC. Off to prestigious cancer center in NYC confirmed diagnosis..I had an external drain..Dr George was able to internalize it after 2 attempts..I will be forever thankful…had a laparoscopy while there to make sure cancer had not spread all came back negative…next PET scan…which showed uptake in several areas of my chest..no surgery…second opinion late December 09 at Mt Sinai with Dr Myron Schwartz..had a CT..seems all of the areas of uptake were gone…he attributes it to all the procedures I had. I was blessed to have surgery Jan 19 2010…cancer was close to one margin and I did have 2 lymph nodes involved…6 month adjuvant chemo at Bruckner Oncology in NYC..received 5 different chemo drugs over a 2 day period twice a month. Last scan in November was all clear! I have 3 wonderful children and my bestest friend in the whole world my husband Lou.

Hi everyone!

My name is Randi, I am a 56 year old woman who lives in Hilton, New York which s a rural area outside of Rochester, NY. For reference, Rochester is in western NY up by Lake Ontario about an hour from Buffalo and 8 hours from NYC. I have 2 beautiful daughters in their 20s and a wonderful supportive husband.

I was diagnosed with CC November, 2009 after having symptoms like itching, indigestion, and some other symptoms. I had an ERCP which unfortunately resulted in pancreatitis. I spent 7 days in the hospital to get that under control and while there scheduled a Whipple. I had the Whipple on December 15th, 2009, stayed in the hospital just 6 days and recovered nicely from. The pathology came back and confirmed CC was in my bile duct and had poked into the top part of my pancreas. There were no other tumors, they got clean margins, and there was no lymph node involvement. I was presented with chemo as a choice, got a second opinion, and decided to do 6 months of Gemzar as a precaution.

Chemo went mostly well in retrospect, however, at the time I would probably have disagreed with that assessment. I had an intestinal blockage during round 4 of chemo, that was decidedly not fun.

I have had scans (MRIs mostly) every 3 months since January 2010 when my scan showed an area in my liver that was not letting go of the dye as quickly as others. After having a liver biopsy, that area turned out to be an artifact of the scan and not a problem, but to be on the safe side, I get scanned a lot. Hopefully my next scan on Feb 7th will be fine and I can stretch out my scans a bit more. (fingers crossed)

As you can see by my signature, I have had a couple of other cancers and recovered fine. I had genetic testing during my chemo and they all came back negative. Who knows why this happened to me, but hopefully I will get through this the same way I got through the others.

-Randi-

Kris Jacobson. 48 years young. Birthday in June. Born in Minnesota. Have lived in many states. Now just outside of Philadelphia, PA. I was diagnosed March 2011. I travel to Sloane Kettering in New York City for treatment, and occasionally to Princeton, NJ. I had surgery April 2011 to install hepatic pump. My surgeon says I can have surgery now to try to remove tumor. My tumor is still shrinking so I want to try for more shrinkage for about another month then resection. I am divorced (pre cancer) with no kids and have a semi-serious boyfriend who didn’t run. I worked in Advertising until I was laid off after my diagnosis. Currently on disability.

I’m Tiffany.
29 years old (for a few more weeks my birthday is 2-14-82) from Huntsville Alabama. I’m married to an awesome man Brian, and we have two kids Carter- 6 and Madison- 2.
We learned of my CC in October 2011. I was in banking before cancer. My cancer is in stage 4 and we get treatment here in Huntsville, and MD Anderson in Houston TX.