My wife

Our story starts back in April when my wife could no longer handle the pain in her abdomen, so we went to the emergency room where they did some tests. A CT scan did show a spot on her liver, but they said they see spots all of the time and it was probably nothing. They assumed the pain was a gallbladder attack and sent her home as the pain subsided.

A month later, the excruciating pain returned so we went back to the ER. Same tests, same result, but the doc recommended we see our regular doctor and get a thorough checkup. He stressed we get the spot on the liver checked, too.

We were then sent to a GI who did every gallbladder test (and upper GI, lower GI) under the sun and recommended we see a liver specialist. I’m retired military so she was able to get an MRI and they agreed we should see the liver specialist. This didn’t happen until mid-September. The liver guy took a quick exam and said liver and wanted a better MRI. He did the new MRI and drew blood. He didn’t yet want to do a biopsy until he saw the new MRI and blood results. The blood results were all normal including AFP and other cancer markers, so he decided a biopsy was in order. On the 29th of September he told us it was adenocarcinoma and he referred us to the Siteman Cancer Center in St Louis.

On Monday, the oncologist confirmed cholangiocarcinoma with a 5cmx2cm tumor on the left lobe and 6 others ranging from 3-8mm throughout the rest of the liver.

On Tuesday my wife got a chest CT to check her lungs.

On Wednesday, she got a port and began gemzar/platinol chemo. The oncologist also informed us there was a 1.5 cm tumor in her lung.

All of her blood tests are still normal and the doc hopes to be able to shrink the left lobe tumor through 3 cycles of chemo then he will send us back to the liver doc (who is considered one of the best in St Louis) for possible resection.

All we can do now is fight this thing! Thanks for listening.