New here: My dad
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The doctors told him that his tumor is not resectable because of both sides of his liver are currently affected and theres the possibility of the lymph nodes around the liver having it as well. They also said that the area around it (what the dr referred to as the “plastic wrap that hold his guts in” is fuzzy on the scans and could possibly be affected too–but they wouldnt know that until they cut him open). They want to try to shrink or get rid of the cancer in the less affected areas – i.e. the right side of his liver mostly- with the chemo and then see if he’d be a candidate for surgery.
Though, i will ask him if his dr has talked to him about the SBRT, i know his dr said that if this chemo does not work, radiation will probably be the next stepping stone, but not sure if it was the same type. His body has been taking it very hard with chemo alone and so i am not sure if they want to just do one thing at a time b/c of that.
There are other options for your Dad beside systemic chemotherapy. SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy) concomittant with chemotherapy, TACE (trans arterial chemoembolization) and surgery if possible. There are centers in US who provide these options (i.e. UPMC, MD Anderson, Mayo, University of Florida Gainsville,Wash Univ St.Louis)
Dr Canady
Hi Graceful,
We have a good news board here –
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb/viewforum.php?id=44
And of course, we all love to read posts on this board and I hope that I will be reading posts from you about your dad here!
Best wishes,
Gavin
Thanks everyone – I will absolutely be keeping you up to date, especially once he receives his scan results. Hoping for good news!
What discussion board are those things usually posted on?
Hi Graceful and welcome to our wonderful family! First of all I love your name, Graceful as my Granddaughter has the same name. I am so glad that your dad is a fighter and has a good attitude that helps a lot of the battle. I am also sure that the first Grandchild coming in December is the best RX he could have wished for. We are here for you and visit us as often as you like.
Hi there,
Welcome to the site. Sorry that you had to find us all but I am glad that you have joined us all. I’m glad that you say that your dad is feeling well right now and long may this continue. And hopefully you will get some good news from his scan in December.
If you have any questions then please feel free to ask them and we will all do what we can to help. We are a very friendly bunch here and you will get a ton of support from us all. Looking forward to hearing more from you.
My best wishes to you and your dad,
Gavin
Grace….I dont’ have much to add to Andie’s welcome, but also would like to say hello. We are the club that no one wants to belong to although, always are happy to have found. Your Dad must be so very excited about his first grandchild coming very soon.
Best wishes,
MarionThanks so much, Andrea. I’m so glad that both of our fathers are such stubborn people — that fighting spirit is so helpful! I hope that your dads bilirubin levels somehow decrease (im not knowledgeable about it so idk if that can or cannot happen) and he’s able to have more treatments available to him.
I feel blessed that my dad was able to walk me down the aisle – he was so adamant that he was going to do that, no matter what.
Hi and welcome to our cc family.
I’m so glad your Dad is feeling well, that is always a good sign.
Your Dads attitude sounds great, and I believe a positive attitude really helps. My Dad was diagnosed in April after 2 months of painless jaundice, unfortunately it is inoperable and chemo is not an option due to high bilirubin levels. Despite this Dad is determined to put up a good fight.
I will keep everything crossed for a good scan result in December. My Dad adores my son and when he was born 9 years ago my Dad was recovering from colon cancer, I really believe my sons birth made my Dad fight extra hard, and i’m sure your Dad will too.
Best wishes
Andrea
Hi everybody – I’m new here, and glad to have found you.
My dad was diagnosed in May of this year, at age 57, with Stage III Cholangiocarcinoma. He went into the hospital with a diagnosis from his PCP of diverticulitis — he was not responding to antibiotics and needed IV ones to get better. During scans to check out his diverticulitis, they found a huge blood clot in his liver as well as masses in there. Subsequently, they did more tests to see if it was cancer.
We were told of his diagnosis about a week after he was admitted to the hospital. At that point, they sent him to a specialist and did some more tests (and a PET scan), and found out that the cancer was blocking some of his bilary ducts (as was the blood clot), and that the left side of his liver was 70% affected by the cancer, adn there were a few spots on the right side as well. Some of his lymphnodes near the liver were swollen but they were unsure if they were infected.
He was started on chemotherapy (dont recall which drug) and within 3 months of treatment and another PET scan, they told us that the treatments were working, and that the tumor’s size had decreased over 30% during those 3 months! However, within the next month, he was feeling unwell again and very tired, and had another scan.
They discovered that his cancer had adapted to the chemo treatment and it was growing again. Now he’s been put on 5-FU chemotheraphy. The first month or so of that was super hard on him and he was sick ALL THE TIME. But, he has been feeling very well this past week. In fact, he said its the longest he has felt good since his diagnosis in May. It makes me hopeful that his next scan in December will show good progress and maybe then he will be elligible for resection surgery.
I guess I’m not looking for answers from you guys – it’s just nice to know that you are all here and understand what my family and I are going through. He is very hopeful and strong…he wants to beat this. He was so happy to make it to my wedding in July and is looking forward to the birth of his first grandchild (my sister’s child) in mid December.
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