My Father Passed Away
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Hi Guda,
I am so sorry to hear about your dear father ‘s passing, and the ordeal he and your family went through seeking a diagnosis when he was so severely ill in the last several months. From what you describe, his last two months were a race for his doctors to try a diagnose what was going on while his health was rapidly deteriorating. This experience must have been heart-breaking for you and your family.
Because cholangiocarcinoma is a very rare cancer, it may not be the first illness doctors look for when a patient presents with general gastrointestinal symptoms. At the same time, our cancer can be notoriously hard to diagnose in some patients, who can go through multiple rounds of tests without conclusive results. To give you an example from my own case, my general bloodwork including bilirubin and liver enzymes was all normal around the time I was diagnosed even though I had a tumor occupying more than half of my liver.
Cholangiocarcinoma patients can have a higher risk for developing blood clots. Sometimes patients will report symptoms that lead their doctors to look for a blood clot, in other cases a symptomless clot will be seen on a scan. Sometimes symptomless blood clots are not detected at all, until they cause a serious complication.
I hope you and your family can find peace and take comfort in memories of your father’s life and your moments together. Please stay in touch with our community.
Take care, regards, Mary
My father started having pain in the stomach Mid November 2021. Went to the doctor a couple of weeks later, they did a bunch of blood tests found nothing. Went to the doctor again did an ultrasound found nothing. Father was not eating, losing weight, stomach pain, pain got worse and called 911 on Jan.4 2022 and they took him to the emergency room. First, they detect Colon cancer spread to the liver but then did a colonoscopy and found it was a misdiagnosis. Now we know he has jaundice, and something is in his liver, but doctors have a tough time detecting what it is; no indication it is extremely deadly. They release my father from the hospital on Jan.14. We do a liver biopsy on Jan. 20, and they release him again. We do another blood test on Jan.24 at the request of the liver specialist. Tests shows a high bilirubin in which they send my father back to the hospital on Jan.25. The results come back from the liver biopsy on Jan. 27 showing advanced stage Cholangiocarcinoma, no surgery possible no cure and has weeks rather than months to live. My father was to do a stent to drain his bile because of the bile blockage on Jan.28 but as they moved him, he had a heart attack and was put on life support. He passed away on Jan.29. I am in so much shock and pain right now. I have so many questions about how this happened so fast and why doctors and hospitals missed so many things.
1. Why did the family doctor in December not find anything in the blood tests in December? Family doctor recently called after my fathers’ death and said the ultrasound in December showed shadows in the liver. Now as stated above they said they found nothing. I don’t know if my father misinterpreted the results, or the doctor found out later. Very strange; but if the doctor did find shadows in the liver, wouldn’t he send my dad to the emergency room?
2. Why did the hospital not see my dad’s bile blockage in her 1st hospital visit? How did they find it later? They did an endoscopy; put a tube into is mouth went into his body in his 1st hospital visit and found nothing.
3. Why did the hospital release my dad in his 1st hospital visit? I am shocked by this. He had jaundice lesions/tumors in his liver a high bilirubin and suspected to have cancer. Even the liver specialist was surprised they released him.
4. Does Cholangiocarcinoma cause low blood pressure and blood clots? The CT scan showed blood clots around my dad’s heart. The doctor said advanced cancers create blood clots which led to my dad’s heart attack. My Dad also had heart disease, could have been a contributing factor.
I know this is a long post, but I had so many things to get off my chest. In conclusion I am so shocked that we didn’t have a chance to fight this cancer, but I guess it was so advanced that it was too late. I am in so much pain and shock that this happened so quickly in 2.5 months. My Dad was 75 and will live in my heart forever.
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