My Mum x

Hi Everyone,

Sadly my mum (49) was diagnosed with CC in early December 2014 after numerous endoscopy scans etc. after severe stomach pains and jaundice. Her surgeon said her tumour was distal to the bile ducts and in a position for The Whipple Procedure. This was scheduled for January 2015. Her surgeon was confident about the removal of the tumour and informed us all she would need no chemo and just to concentrate on the recovery of such a massive operation.
The last few weeks have been really hard as you all know, along with watching my mum recover we were all anxiously waiting on the results from her surgery.
So last Tuesday her surgeon told us that it wasn’t quite what they had hoped, that the tumour was 0.9 mm near major blood vessels and cancer cells were present in 8 of 25 removed Lymph nodes. Her next option was chemotherapy to prolong her life, and that she was to live her life and gave her a prognosis of approx. 2 years to live. The next two days were a living hell for my poor mum and my family. Then on Thursday she had an appointment with her oncologist who explained things a little bit better (well a little). He went onto explain that they do think there were microscopic cells left behind and that this treatment of Gemcitabine and Cisplatin CAN kill these microscopic cells off. That he wasn’t giving her palliative chemo but she was high risk. It’s all a little confusing. I asked what happens after the cycle of chemotherapy and how we test her cancer cells etc. to check for Mets. We were told after the cycle of chemo then that’s it. No other testing and the next stage would be symptomatic.
Does anybody else have a similar story and can maybe offer me and my family some advice.
Feeling very sad, confused and lost .

Love to you all x