My dad recently diagnosed
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Hi Chan….I stand corrected and am thrilled to hear that your Dad is able to have both tumors removed by Dr. Chapman.
All my best wishes for a successful drop in the bilirubin and a speedy recovery from the surgery.
MarionChan- I am so glad your dad has hope. Everyone on this site knows Dr. Chapman is my hero. I understand exactly how you feel about not needing another opinion, he just has a way of letting you know you are in the right place. That is one thing I try to tell everyone, that I skipped all the “diagnose nonsense step”. I had been a caretaker for my mom for 14 years who had a major stroke, cancer, lung, and heart problems so I realized right away how different this expierence was.
I live 25 minutes from Barnes so if there is anything I can do for you, please call. Tell Dr. Chapman and his staff his “miracle” is headed to the beach just as he promised!!!
Lots of prayers and hope-CathyChan, thank you so much for enlightening us and yes, we have rave reviews on Dr. Chapman. I learned that you must listen to your gut feelings as they will steer you in the right direction and it sounds like you are doing everything in a very good way. My husband had a Whipple 5 1/2 years ago. I hope the BR drops quickly now so that they can proceed with the surgery. Best wishes to your dad and family.
Well thank you all for posting. All good points and helpful insights. Dad is being treated by Dr. Chapman at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. I think this sight is very familiar with Dr. Chapman. He is very experienced in treating cc. Dr. Chapman said it is very, very rare to have a patient that requires both a Klatskin and Whipple however it has been done. Very few in the U.S. but he has done these together. He has performed multiple Klatskin procedures and Whipple procedures, this is part of his speciality. He assured us he is well trained and confident he’ll perform both on my dad at the same time. So yes, Marion, we’re having both procedures.
My dad does not want to have multiple opinions. If we weren’t in such good hands with Dr. Chapman, I would push for the 2nd and even 3rd opinion.
They replaced his internal stents and tubing today. Something that is apparently only an in-and-out, 10 minute procedure didn’t turn out that way. Dad was in so much pain with the new tubes since they are larger than the original tubes that they had to take care of his pain with an IV (oral pain meds were NOT doing it). Dad is resting comfortably now though. His first stent/tube was placed on March 26 and the second was placed on April 12.
I do understand that the jaundice ‘stains’ the skin and takes weeks to go away. Some days dad doesn’t even look ‘yellow’ but other days he’s yellow. His eyes are a big give away. Last check, his biliruben was at 13.9 and Dr. Chapman wants it down to 10 to perform the surgery. And that is all we are waiting on to get these tumors out!
The tumor in the bile ducts coming from the liver (tumor is not in the liver at all) has not been biopsied so we aren’t sure it’s cancerous there. Dr. Chapman did say that in 90% of the cases they are cancerous so they will treat it as cancer and remove it. The other tumor at the common bile duct and head of pancreas was biopsied and positive for cancer, probably a stage 2.
We are very hopeful and confident in the surgeon we have. Chapman is great. I’ve read a lot of great things about him on here and that just confirms our choice.
I will write down some of these questions you all suggested. They were good ones! Thank you so much!
ChanHi Chan….a very warm welcome from me also. Chan, I am a bit puzzled by your last comments re: Whipple and Klatskin surgery. A Klatskin tumor occurs at the confluence of the right and left hepatic bile ducts.
The Whipple procedure (distal bile duct cancer) includes a resection of the proximal duodenum (first portion of the small intestine), head of the pancreas, common bile duct, and gallbladder. It is the very same procedure as the one performed for cancers of the head of the pancreas. Never are both surgeries performed on the same person.
Please, keep us posted on any further development.
All my best wishes,
MarionHi,
If I were you, get a second opinion at Mayo Clinic ,MD Anderson or any university hospitals suggested here in this web site. Surgery resection,Radio Frequency Ablation(RAF) and other radiation external therapy like EBRT and internal radiation therapy like brachytherapy , photodynamic therapy,proton beam therapy . Chemotherapy with or without radiation are other options.
Recurrence is common so make sure your father has enough liver reserve for the surgery or do RAF. There are currently no effective standard treatment protocol for treating cholangiocarcinoma.
And if you are in Hong kong or other Asian countries like Taiwan or mainland China, it is much easier to find a good Chinese Herbal Practitioner to complement your father’s western style medical practice.Those countries even may have clinical trials for CC.
God bless.My dad was diagnosed last year January. They told him here in Miami they couldn’t operate. Luckily we had connections and found a surgeon in Singapore (National University in Singapore) and he did the surgery. My dad was fine for over a year until just real recently he had recurrence, stage four. My advice to you would be if you are in the US and they say they can’t operate, there are other options outside of the US. All we can do now is pray the chemo works to shrink the tumors to buy my dad some more time.
Hi Chan,
Welcome to the site. Sorry that you had to find us all and I am sorry also to hear about your dad. But I am glad that you have joined us all as you will get a lot of support from all of us here. That is good to hear that your dad seems to be a candidate for surgery and that his specialist seems confident in being able to get the 2 tumours out. Have you asked the specialist how experienced he/she is in dealing with patients with CC, and how many procedures like this he/she has carried out? Yes this cancer is quite rare so your dad getting more opinions on possible treament options is a good thing.
Please feel free to ask any questions that you have and all of us will do what we can to help in ansering them. We are not doctors but we will help in any way that we can. How long has your dad had the drains in for? As Andie has said to you, it can take some time for the jaundice to recede. My dad also had the jaundice and his CC was deemed inoperable so he had a metal stent inserted and this helped an awful lot in dealing with the jaundice. I take it that your dad has not had a stent inserted?
My best wishes to you and your dad,
Gavin
Hi and welcome to our cc family.
Like Lainy said get 2nd and 3rd opinions. It does sound good though that they are willing to consider surgery.
Has for the bilirubin it can take a while to settle down after stent and drain procedures, the small ducts can become inflammed and this can slow the bile flow down. My advice would to be drink, drink, and drink to help flush the bilirubin out quicker. It’s a good sign your Dads jaundice is going though sometimes they can seem to keep the yellow tinge for a while.
Sending best wishes to you and your Dad
Hello Chan and welcome to our wonderful family. My first question would be, have you sought out another opinion? If 2 doctors had different views I would get a 3rd opinion. My husband’s billierubin was a little high and they proceeded with the Whipple anyway. He did not have a Klatskin. Something else to consider is the size of the tumors. If they are under 7cm you may want to ask about Cyber Knife which is non invasive. Where is Dad being treated? I know you will get some more anwsers here and hopefully we can try to help.
My dad was diagnosed with bile duct cancer about 4 weeks ago. He was originally diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, stage 2 but when we were referred to a specialist, he said it was bile duct cancer. We do not know what stage. We were told by our specialist since it was caught early and even though he has two tumors (we were told was very rare), there shouldn’t be any reason our specialist can’t surgically remove the tumors. Dad has two bile drains, has lost weight, is far less jaundiced than he was originally but his biliruben isn’t going down like the dr wants. We do not have a date for the whipple and klastin procedures yet. Any advice is appreciated.
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