My Beautiful Mother

Dear Kathleen, Welcome to our Family as we have already welcomed TJ. You must be one wonderful person notches above being one wonderful mother. We are so very sorry you are having such a rough time. When you are up to it please feel free to be in contact with us we would love to hear from you.

I have added my mommy to this site. Her name is Kathleen and this is her ID. Please speak freely to her for she may have many questions that she may not desire to ask others. Thank you so much.

God Bless,
TJ (AracingGrace)

TJ:

Let me echo the others who have posted before me. Welcome. Come back often and read all you can on this site as it is a wonderful site full of very useful information.

CC is often undectected until the cancer is in the advanced stages. Some people like my husband Tom are diagnosed early because of being on a cholesterol lowering drug. The only reason is that when you are on a Cholesterol lowering drug, they normally test your liver function about every three months.

The journey with CC can have many twists and turns, ups and downs and bumps in the road. You can read my husband’s story under my login name, mlepp0416 (My husband and Cholangiocarnicoma)

Tom is now 63 and for awhile he too did not have any desire to fight this disease, however, that was after his previous oncologist told him that there was nothing they could do. After some soul searching and discussing the options with family members he decided to fight this evil cancer.

Has Radiation been discussed? What type of chemo is your mom on? What type of needles are they using when they try to do blood draws, or start iv’s?
With Tom, his veins are so shot from all the medical procedures that they almost always have to use a ‘butterfly’ needle. And most often when he presents to the ER they already know that they need to call in someone from the IV team to start an IV or do blood draws.

Prayers from Wisconsin are coming your mom’s way.

Go with God and KEEP KICKIN’ THAT cancer.

Margaret

Hi TJ,

Welcome to the site, although I am sorry that you have to be here. What Lainy and Marion say regarding symptoms, diagnosis and detection of this disease are so true and this was indeed the same for my dad. He was diagnosed in 2008, was 64 years old and was in pretty good health we all thought. He started to show signs of jaundice, yellowing of the eyes and started itching. He was admitted to hospital and they carried out all the usual tests, MRI, CT etc and over 3 weeks later, they finally diagnsoed him with CC which they said at that point was inoperable.

Until my dads jaundice came on, he showed no symptoms at all, had no pain and was leading a very healthy life. Looking back, we had absolutely no idea at all that dad was showing any signs of CC. Please try and focus on the now and not look back at what might have or could have been done previously. Your mum will need you to be strong for her now. I do know how hard this is for you, I was my dads carer during his battle with CC and it sounds like you are doing everything that you can right now for your mum.

I hope that you will come back here often as you will get so much help and support from us all. Ask any and all questions that you will have and I am certain that you will get answers here. We have been where you are now so we know what you are going through.

My best wishes to you and your mum,

Gavin

TJ….I agree with Lainy and I would like to add the following: the symptoms of this disease manifest in various ways and could be a sign of numerous other diseases. There simply is no early detection for this cancer in fact and most patients do not present themselves with a specific risk factor. We do know though, that some of the suspected risk factors include: Exposure to Thorotrast formerly used for medical imaging, primary sclerosing cholangitis (an inflammatory disease of the bile ducts), parasites liver flukes, and congenital liver malformations.
Once the bile ducts are blocked generally, it leads the physicians to suspect Cholangiocarcinoma/bile duct cancer because, the patient displays symptoms of chills, fever, abdominal pain extending to the back, loss of appetite, itching, and jaundice. Once diagnosed, patients display various positive responses to treatments and your Mom may very well do the same. You are doing well by reaching out and gathering information. This will allow you to become knowledgeable about this disease and will enable you to become a strong advocate for your loving Mom.
My best wishes are coming your way,
Marion

Dearest TJ, Welcome to our Family and sorry you had to come here. Should of, would of could of…..really doesn’t matter with CC. It is very hard to DX and most often has advanced by the time it is found. The important thing is that now mom is being treated and a plan is set. Do you mind my asking her age? It may have something to do with her not wanting to fight. I also feel it is very important for the WHOLE family to know what is happening and to be together on this as it is really needed for support and decisions. Don’t worry about medical words, my best phrase is “my gut feelings”. Please keep us posted as we all care!