Hello everyone I am Pat a very blessed cc survivor
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You may take and use anything I post here.If it brings a smile or a laugh to any individual or group I have succeeded.I hope to make you smile again…I would like to add that one key thing to long term survival is to teach yourself to not worry about things you cannot control,I remember shortly before my surgery I was putting away christmas decorations and thinking to myself “will I ever even need these again? ” I had a flood of emotions and I could feel the energy being sucked out of me and I thought no! No darn way will I self destruct like that and I decided what happens is going to happen, be positive and live each day with renewed thanks and energy, do not beat yourself up about what might happen.One of the doctors in my journey said’ Hope for the best, plan for the worst’…meaning to get your affairs in order.Well I believe “hope for the best, strive for the best” and think positive all the way, live one day at a time and make a list of things you want to do in your life story and focus and live all you can.Somehow it worked for me, be kind to all that have helped you,and your mind will be too busy to think self destructively, this has worked for me,thanks Pat
Oh, Pat love your new title, “Professional Patient”. If you don’t mind I am going to steal that one for my friends and family.
I was unawaare a re-resection is even possible,with intrahepatic tumors as mine, half the bilary tree is now missing and all bile flows through the right hepatic duct which is attached directly to the bile duct below the gall bladder. The amazing thing is the liver regrowing like a lizards tail, but a so much more complex vascular organ with bile ducts and blood vessels throughout , unless a tumor would be in the regenerated portion of the liver, this is why I have not watched vigilantly as I believed my options are much reduced, and to be honest I hate ct scans, the harpoon like iv for the automatiically dispensed strange blue fluid and the delicious milkshakes beforehand, gosh I have missed them. We do whatever it takes but sometimes you begin to feel like a professional patient after a while.
Hi,
You are correct, and so does the messages on this forum; no one should trust the internet information completely; You have to educate yourself to make the correct judgement and decision for helping your self.The same can be apply to reading and researching medical article on the web. Not all of them about our disease are of useful info for us. but it is also important for us,at least me in this situation as a moderator to provide as many and as fast as I can read the original articles that provide insight and proposals and choose the one that that can help our goal of finding cure no matter whether it is oncology,radiology,surgery,CAM and immunology related and if we can, we also try to provide the best suggestion to all of the patients who ask for specific questions.,Our Gavin,Eli and some other members are doing the same ,providing their own details to try to help other patients who may be having the same situations.And our Senior Moderators like Lainy and Marion too. But no matter how much time we can spend on questions and patients as well, the ultimate decision is onyou and only you and your family to decide alone whether the information your receive from this forum is just news or of benefit to those who seek and learn about this disease.
The above statement is apply to all of the members as well.”Buyer be aware”
God bless.please dont think I have I stopped watching…you are correct about not letting my guard down and I am considering taking a look…news stories can be decieving as I have read about older models of ct machines that put out 20 times the radiation as newer ones I looked at the machines I was being imaged on and there is quite a variety of manufacturers and models.I ended up going where the newest looking machine was…this was just another thing and I have seen how this disease doesnt stop with mos t and I dont feel my situation is all sunshine and lollypops by any means news stories can mess you up as much as they can educate you.
Hi,
I tend to be different with regard to recurrence. I believe that once you have CCA, even after you resected ,the chance to recur again is between 50-75%, depending on what type of CCA you had , with the best survival rate for distal CCA. I would not comment on your case,but please keep on searching and reading the messages on this board until you will find the most appropriate answer to you that is related to your case the most. Seven years out of the wood is a major victory over this disease, but I will not let my guard down for one bit.Re- resection, Adjuvant chemotherapy and targeted therapy,long term maintenance chemotherapy, RFA, microwave ablation,chemoembo , radioembo, IBRT,SBRT,( cyber knife ,nano knife), PDT ,proton therapy, immunotherapy such as adoptive cell therapy(TIL treatment). All of these are potential treatment for recurrence . As you know ,the liver can regenerate itself, that means, even if there is only one cancer cell left in the liver or the bile duct area after surgery, that onecancer cell can also regenerate with the heathy cells and multiply into millions over time and become cancer again.Therefore I don’t think in the same way that you think about this cancer.But I am not a doctor, so I can be wrong and you can be right.
One more thing, to monitor cancer thru only blood work every year may not be enough,CT scan once a year after survival for five years may be the best way to monitor the recurrence. Your oncologist should give you clear instruction on that.I personally will not be bothered by the radiation from the CT scan since I do believe ” the benefit outweighs the risk).
God bless.Hi Pat
Welcome and thank you for sharing hope. I am also a Cleveland Clinic patient, who was your surgeon ? Dr. John Fung is mine and I love him…he is a wonderful man and brilliant surgeon
Lisaforgot to mention…I now see my oncologist once a year…my last scan was two years ago and upon discussing it with my oncologist I decided to forgo further scans as each is quite a dose of radiation..livers dont like radiation according to my doctor so we just do blood scans…even if this does return I am not sure of what options there are after you’ve been resected and your liver is regenerated I do have primary sclerosing cholangitis so a return is possible but not so likely after 7 years. I have studied much about diet and exersize and I am my own advocate…if something doesnt sound right question it..doctors like to see you are very concerned about every detail…I must be doing something right to have come this far,avoid stress, eat healthy, (bananas are the perfect food) learn to sleep correctly, get a dog to keep yourself moving and to make you laugh…and oh yes laughter is the best medicine you can prescribe yourself to forget your problems so seek it often…bless you all who read this and I hope something here helps you, Pat
It has been a few years (at least six) since I saw my surgical report and biopsy..the intrahepatic tumor was contained inside the bile duct obstructing flow of bile in my left hepatic duct…1.5cm if I remember correctly no involvement with nearby lymph nodes the left lobe of my liver was sickened by the backup of bile according to the surgeon..however on the suggestion of my doctor who initially ordered the ultrasound, I avoided greasy food and alchohol from then on…I never had another symptom or pain until my surgery…without a little greasy food (deep fried chicken wings) and draft beer I might not have known about the chaos going on in my belly until it was further along…going by your websites system of staging I would be stage one…as I said I am blessed or plain lucky over and over…so I try to do something for someone else every day.That is how I am attempting to give back to whatever angels have done their work for me and it seems this site is a great place for me to be for now.Thank you all..Pat
Hi,
It is only by the Grace of God that I am still alive today. Most of the people on this board have known me for a while already, but for those who newly joined us, I am a patient for 46 months and still on chemotherapy; and with relative good health and energy that can let me choose as an advocate for this disease on this forum as well as other organizations like the FDA.
The point I want to make is that, each additional day that we can have beyond the burden of this horrible disease,we should not forget thousands of the others who are having this disease and still waiting for their term to be set free from this disease, or at lease to have same the opportunity like us who are relatively well and in remission.
I think this is the strongest motivation for all of us , who are able to contribute to this cause, to be an advocate for this disease by joining or seeking the various areas of advocacy like Marion suggested to help ourself to learn more about this disease(as the recurrence rate is awfully high) and at the same time helping others who are in need and less fortunate than us. I sincerely believe that if more of us taking on as advocacy voices in our communities, the more people will aware of this disease and more research will be done on this disease and the sooner we(including me and those who are in remission) all will be free at last of this disease .
I always wander if #34 of the Chicago Bear spoke out as an advocate of his disease at the time of his diagnosis , what will be the benefits that he can give to all of us by now because of his fame and love by all of the sport fans at that time? But instead, he kept it quietly till the end of his life..
God bless.Thanks you so mush for sharing your story! We don’t hear from many long term survivors.
Take care!
Susie
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