Mum on chemo (only Gemzar)

Hi, my name is Kate and I’m form Poland.

Sevent months ago my Mum (47 now)was diagnosed with obstructive jaundice. Two month later the doctors said she had cancer, she’s got Clutskin tumor, stage IV accoring to Bismuth- Corllet classification. Needless to say, it was too late for resection. The results of biopsy read as follows:

Adenocarcinoma probabiliter cholangiocarcinoma invasium hepatis. The test for the presence of the mucus: positive. immunophenotype of the cancer cells: CK7(+), CKAE1/AE3(+), CK19(+), CK5/6(-), CDX2(, PgR(-), ER(-), CEA(-), TTF-1(-), WT-1(-)

Hope I translated everything correctly.

The doctors decided the chemiotherapy (she’s getting only Gemzar for some reason) is the best option for her but because she’s very weak, she’s getting very small doses – one dose a week for three weeks, one week brake, and so on. Now she’s havong thord cycle and the side effects begun- the nausea and diarrhea. She can hardly eat these days and spends almost all day sleeping.

I dont live in the same city and can’t be with her on the everyday basis. I don’t really know what to do and how to help her. The goods news is that it’s been seven months now and she’s still with us. Nevertheless I know things can get worse.

I think the very least I can do for her is to ask for help- maybe someone could give be piece of advise on what helps during chemo that is based on Gemzar only – I don’t know if the same things help for all the types of chemo.

Thank you in advance,
Kate