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[jujubear]

I forgot to mention that she is taking diuretics for the fluid in her stomach. It has gone down a lot and has been 2 weeks. Also, she is stage 2. I do believe there is a letter next to the stage, but do not have it on me at this time. I will update that later.

[jujubear]

Hello, I am new to this board, and glad to of found it. My mother is 62 yrs old, and was officially diagnosed with bile duct cancer in Feb 2012. She had symptoms of jaundice on the 2nd week of Jan 2012. After going to the emergency room, to a nearby hospital, and staying there for 3 weeks, with no diagnosis, we decided to move her to a bigger hospital in the city. We live in staten island, ny and are now going to mount Sinai for her treatment.

She was not a candidate for liver transplant because of her getting a biopsy on that area. We were told by the head of the liver transplant dept that the area where her biopsy was done, made her ineligible. She also cannot get surgery due to the tumor location being near major blood vessels.

The move to the bigger hospital helped because she was able to get her stents placed, where as the hospital in staten island had no GI’s who wanted to perform it on her. I think because they were not experienced with this case.

She’s had her first stents placed in March 2012, and went great. She then started her chemotherapy (gemzar) in April, and was doing well.
Then in May, she started to catch fevers and noticed that her urine was getting dark again. After doing blood work, they said that she will have to change her stents, because one of them got clogged. Her 2nd time around wasn’t easy breezy. She still had fevers, and also got fluid buildup in her stomach. After a few weeks, she got better but the fluid did not go down.
She took a trip down to Korea, to see if she can get a laser treatment on the cancer. The doctors advised her that she cannot of the tumor location on her major blood vessels.
She is now back home, continuing her chemotherapy at a lower dose. The dose that she was getting was too strong and her platelets were very low.

My dad, sister and I are her care takers. I can speak for myself that in the beginning I was very upset, and depressed. I did not know how to handle all this. My mother is battling her 3rd cancer, and I just feel insecure not knowing what to expect.
These days, I am trying to be strong her and be there for her. Are there any ways to help with her platelets?
Thank you all for reading. Good luck to you and your loved ones.

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