My wife starts Chemo on Thursday August 6, 2015
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My 67 year old husband had 6 months of gem/cis chemo and the side effects were minimal. He lost some hair in terms of thickness and lost his sense of taste, sticking to a few meals that he enjoyed like turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Every week we celebrated a new Thanksgiving. He now is experiencing some chemo brain as far as memory and word retrieval, but a year after finishing his chemo regimen, he is volunteering at City of Hope, welcoming new patients.
In my opinion, don’t let the possible side effects stop you from trying chemo. Everyone is different, i know, but we are thankful that John’s reaction was minimal.
God Bless
MelindaDear Steve,
Welcome to our group. My mother opted for chemo, and we had great results which then led us to radiation, but the chemo was not easy on her. She was feeling well when she started the chemo, so we did not alleviate symptoms. However, I have read others’ stories here who once on the chemo, start feeling better as the tumors shrink.
It is a personal choice. And, keep in mind you can stop chemo at anytime. Mom’s almost 2 years after DX. so we are very thankful she gave it a try. The first round was the worst and she almost stopped, but then they adjusted her meds and we kept up with the fluids.
We’re here to dump on anytime. I hope things turn around soon and you get to Ireland.
Best wishes,
CatherineHello, Steve and welcome to our remarkable family and the best place to be for CC support but also sorry you have to find us.
Sounds like the route my husband took. He was 73, had an aborted Whipple then the real deal again 3 weeks later. This was 10 years ago and it did buy us 5 years. At that time the Docs said they would not do Chemo and Teddy chose quality over quantity as well. When the CC returned he had Cyber Knife and then it retuned again always to the same place. To Chemo or not has become a very personal decision and all I can attest to is that we never regretted any of our decisions.
Teddy used to ask the ONC what he would advise if he was the ONC’s father. He then always went with the ONC’s decision.
Dana Farber has treated CC patients so pretty experienced with CC and it would not hurt to also get another opinion from them as to what they would do.
Below is a site you may find helpful and please do keep us in your loop with news of Carol’s progress.
BTW, friends and family mean well and perhaps they can do some things like shop for Carol, household things etc, Since I am somewhat of a control freak I rather do things myself but I did the following: Made a list of all family and friends emails and instead of numerous phone calls day and night I let them all know I would send an email almost daily so they would know what is happening. I told them I appreciated their calls but it was too much to handle and they really liked the emails which also lifted the calls for us.http://cholangiocarcinoma.org/newly-dx/
Steve…..welcome to our special group. Nearly everyone on this site (or their loved one) has been on Gem/Cis. I hope that they will chime in and share personal experiences with you.
I am wondering: have you consulted with your wife’s previous surgeon at Lahey clinic?
Hugs,
MarionHi,
The only woman I have ever loved and married was recently diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma.
Carol is 73 and was in better shape mentally and physically than most 50 year olds I know.
In the late 60’s early 70’s Carol had exploratory surgery to find a malformed bile duct. This was corrected and while she had up and down liver values most of her life, she was in good health. In 2013 Carol started to have issues with her liver values again, had two different stents placed to take the pressure off of her bile duct from a cyst on her pancreas. Lahey Clinic Burlington MA performed a Whipple removing the head of the pancreas, rerouting her small intestines and cutting down her bile duct. No cancer found??June 2015 she starting feeling bad, was Jaundiced, light headed bloated. Dartmouth Hitchcock did a CAT scan, MRI, and PET scan, each one telling something worse. They put in a stent, then a metal stent as the first was not working. The metal stent is somewhat working and on August 6th she starts Chemo at Dana Farber in Boston. Reading how poisonous some of these drugs are make me wonder if it is worth it. She is starting on gemcitabine and cisplatin. She has several cancerous tumors 12.5mm, 6.?mm and lesions on her liver, undiagnosed at her operation 1.5 years ago. Told it is advanced and no other options will work for her.
She really wants to go to Ireland and I am wondering if she will ever feel good enough to go. She is not at present, and I only wonder how this Chemo will affect her and if we are on a slippery slope downward from here.
I guess I just had to do a brain dump. Every one of our friends has offered to help, but I just do not know how they can.
Thanks for listening
Steve
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