Introduction

Hi,
My name is Olga. My husband’s name is Norbert. He’s 57, and on March 21, 2014, he was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma. When the nurse practitioner was telling us on the phone, I had her spell it because neither one of us had ever heard of it. She explained that it had metastisized to the liver and that the tumor was too large and too tangled between too many organs to try to do surgery. After I fell apart, I did what I always do and went online to research it and its prognosis. The more I found, the bigger the pit in my stomach and throat grew. It wasn’t fair!! This man had lost 60 lbs. in the last 18 months by eating properly and drinking veggie/fruit smoothies. He had never in his life smoked, drank only socially during his 40’s and had always tried to do the right thing for his health. We met with a team of Dr’s and they explained that he had stage 4 CC and surgery wasn’t an option. We went to the Mayo only to be very disappointed when they told my husband that he had 6 months if he did nothing. But my biggest questions came when the Mayo told us that there was no change from the first scan to the scan that they did and 2 weeks later we were at Henry Ford in Detroit and they were telling us that everything had grown. Also the Mayo told us that it had spread to the lymph nodes but Henry Ford told us that the only way to know would be to biopsy a lymph node. So how do we know who to trust and believe? We have at this point agreed to do an enmbolization of the liver, which is all that he qualifies for. They have determined that embolization is not an option for the tumor so the Dr convinced Norbert that systemic chemo is the only option with embolization to reduce the size of the large tumor. After hearing from him since the beginning that he would not do systemic chemo I have to admit that I was glad he wasn’t giving up and was willing to fight this as long as he could. Although, I’m not sure this is what he wants. When we were at the Mayo and we were told that it had spread to his lymph nodes. I broke down. He only looked at the nurse and said that he had only come here for his wife. That’s when I knew he accepted the hand he had been dealt, but I couldn’t accept it. Or at least I wasn’t going to accept it as gracefully as he was going to accept it. I used to say that between my yoga in the morning and my wine at night I could handle everything in between. Unfortunately, I never seen the curve ball that was coming my way and I am still trying to recover from the blow that hit on March 21. He is scheduled for embolization on May 9, and chemo after that. I know he doesn’t want to do the chemo, yet he has agreed to do it. Is it because he doesn’t want to give up on life or is it because he wants to make me feel better about his decision? I feel like I should be waking from this nightmare any minute, but unfortunately I wake up to the realization every day that I have to face what’s coming. Very few people know the truth as of yet and any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated now!!!