Hi, good to find you
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Hi,
If I may suggest-
After completing chemo;make sure you will have a PET/CT with contrast or MRI with contrast done every 3-4 mouths for a year;then every six month for a couple year.(this is the only way to know about the recurrence of CC.)CC is a long and winding road that require knowledge and courage to navigate it.
I was on 14 month of Gemzar and 3-4 months after treatment;I was back to normal.
God Bless.Hello, all! Thank you for the warm welcome and thoughtful responses! Jim, I think you are right about the chemo inhibiting liver regrowth. I have my six month scans and doctor visit coming up and I will ask my oncologist then. I have been busy going back to grad school since I first posted, so I haven’t been on here since February. However, I am happy to report that after some struggling with my chemo brain and lots of reading and study, I think my memory and brain function have improved. So, I definitely recommend studying something new, learning a new language, etc. to improve your thinking and focus after the effects of chemo, anesthesia, stress and distraction of illness. Having new goals is exciting, too.
I do experience some fatigue and wonder whether this is normal six months out? Sometimes I wonder if this is an indication the cancer has returned. Sometimes every little twinge or symptom makes me anxious.
chezWright, I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with your incision and hope you are healing since your post in March. Good luck and blessings.
Good luck, all! I look forward to hearing more about your journeys and sharing mine.
Jim,
Thank you so much. I live in Maryland; my brother on the Eastern Shore..so this is perfect!
KathyChezWright, we have a specialized wound care practice nearby which has several surgeons and a bunch of nurses skilled in wound care. They have all kinds of specialized dressings, synthetic skin materials, ointments, etc. For a while (say 2 mos.), they used a vacuum device with a carry around battery pack with a very specialized dressing. This place had stuff no hospital would have and the knowledge to deal with especially difficult wounds. I had a problem (infection) with the vertical incision, which required early staple removal. I’ve provided a link to the service I used … you may be able to find a similar facility.
http://www.atlanticgeneral.org/Main/CentersofExcellence/Wound_Care_Center_Inc_35.aspx
Good luck!
Jim….I haven’t seen anything on this site about incisions….I have had a terrible time with mine. I was operated on 5 months ago..for months draining kept occuring..then big hard lumps forming along the incision line. Last week it seems to have finally closed, but I’m having more pain along the lower incision. Did your surgeon deal with the incision issue? Mine just keeps saying, “For some reason your body is reacting to the stitches.” He seems to feel that with time all will be right, but it makes me nervous. One stitch did pop out after 3 months, but no more since then.
Suzann..I didn’t have chemo but feel my memory has been not what it was! I was told that being under anesthetic for so long can affect memory for awhile, too…plus the chemo..that could do it! Congratulations on your good scan. We look forward to hearing more good reports!
Welcome, Suzan. My experience is very similar to yours. I had a left lobe hepatic resection done 4/09 with clean margins, so I think I’m a little further along. I also had six months of Gemzar following surgery, as you had. Now I have a very convenient excuse for memory lapses … chemo brain. It’s really been quite handy at times. I am almost two years from surgery and so far, so good. The tough part now is the anxiety coming up to the next CT, and fretting over some real and imagined ‘new’ symptoms. All of us have learned at lot about subjects we never would have volunteered for.
I asked the surgeon about regeneration for a lot of visits, and there’s been little or none. He said what’s left is working well, so I shouldn’t worry. I do watch the liver function test results like a hawk, though. You, having the same sequence of events, probably had the chemo inhibiting the liver regrowth. I needed about a year of special wound care for the incision to finally close up properly.
Good luck with your recovery journey and hope you continue staying clean.
Dear Wisdom – I’d love to hear more about whatever support you might have. We are here for you, as Lainy said. I don’t think I would have survived without this site and Lainy. Many of us have felt so alone, but have found comfort here where others really know what living with CC is like. Please come often, post, vent, share, ask, we are your family and will go through this with you. Blessings, Susan
Dear Wisdom welcome to our wonderful family but sorry you had to join us.
Has your Oncologist done anything about getting your LABS up to par from the chemo? Has he suggested other chemos? I believe you need a 2nd and possibly a 3rd opinion. We don’t just throw our loved ones out to pasture. May I ask where you are being treated? You are NOT alone, we are here tons of us! May I suggest you repost your initial post under Introductions so that people can see we have a newbie? It may get lost attached to this thread. I know many others will be aboard to help you. Please feel free to post as much as you want to and ask, vent or advise all you need to. We are family and we are here for you.Hi I’m Wisdom. I was diagnosed last march “09.” I had resection surgery in June and my CA19-9 was inthe normal range. I attempted to do Chemo, but my labs tanked to ultimately the doctor suggested I stop. No new treatment since December. I have been watching my CA-19-9 and it continues to climb, now 333. no specific symptoms, very tired. I’m scared and feel pretty much alone. It’s good to find the site, sad to know either you or a family is ill with this disease. Glad to know I can come to site and chat. W.
Welcome to your new family. So glad to hear that you have had successful treatment. Come often and share with us. Others have spoken of chemo brain and it is a very real side effect. You will find a lot of support on this side as well as good information. Keep us posted. Blessings, Susan
Hi Suzan,
Welcome to the site. Sorry that you had to find us all but I’m glad that you have joined as you will get so much support and help from all of us here. I can’t help you with your question about memory loss as my dad never underwent chemo, but as Lainy says, the search forum function at the top of the page will throw up a lot of discussions about this topic. Plus we have a chemo board where you will also find a load of discussions about chemo.
If you have any questions at all then just ask away and we will all do what we can to help in answering them. Please keep us updated on how things go for you and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Best wishes,
Gavin
Hello Suzan and welcome to our wonderful family but sorry you had to join us.
CONGRATULATIONS on being a CC Survivor. We have a search engine at the top of the page and you can type in any words such as ‘chemo brain’ and a ton of posts will come up about chemo brain. You are so normal with that side effect! The ONC will probably tell you about the growth of the liver after your scans. I am just elated with your wonderful attitude as that will help you go far.
Pleae keep us advised of your progress and we look forward to hearing from you more. Wishing you the best.Hi Suzan – First, welcome to the site, sorry you had to find us. What good news you share with us today! Regarding liver regeneration, that is a good question for your surgeon. I also had a liver resection, but for some ‘strange’ reason, my liver did not regenerate back to capacity. it’s just one more way I’m ‘outside the box’ with my CC journey, according to my doctors. But for only having 25% of my liver left, I’m doing OK.
I think I can speak for all of us who have had chemo, getting ‘CHEMO BRAIN’ is a very normal side effect. Some chemo drugs cause chemo brain worse than other drugs (at least in my experience, and I have been on several different chemo drugs in the 2 1/2 years since I started down this wacky crazy road). I still search for words sometimes but am better at forming a complete thought and verbalizing it. One thing I have learned to do is, the minute a thought pops into my head, write it down immediately. Otherwise, for me, the thought disappears as quickly as it came. I am always writing post it notes to myself like ‘start dishwasher’, or ‘call so and so’. For a while it looked like (and still does sometimes) that I’m redecorating my home with post its! I also lose my train of thought frequently in the middle of sentence, so I just laugh and say ‘oh well, that train left the station’. Sometimes the thought circles back around and sometimes it doesn’t. Luckily my family and friends are sometimes able to help me reel the thought back in too. Keep asking questions, knowledge is power. Take care!Hi. I was diagnosed last year and had a left lobe resection, had my gall bladder removed, followed by six months of Gemzar. My margins were clean. I am grateful that my first scans after three months show nothing new. I forgot to ask my oncologist whether my liver had regenerated. I also wonder if others have experienced memory issues after chemo? Anyway, I am happy to find you here and look forward to hearing from others who may have had similar experiences.
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