Road traveled by others….

Hello, otherwise healthy, told my family doctor my goal was to live to 110. Well, that has changed, maybe, only 46 years to go. On June 20 after a liver biopsy I was told that dreaded word no one wants to hear, ” You have cancer of the liver, but we’re not sure what kind”. After a month of tests looking for other cancer, because normally cancer does not just start in the liver, none was found elsewhere. On July 8th I saw my Oncologist, Dr Helft at the IU Simon Cancer center in Indpls.

He said 95% sure it is CC and there is no cure except surgery, and a meeting with Dr. House was set up to consider surgery. On July 15 met with the surgeon who told me of the surgery date of July 27th. BUT a Pet scan was scheduled for July 14st to just double check all the other tests. Met with the Onc on 7/15, which I now call ” Knockdown Friday ” The cancer was in both the left and right lobe of the liver and surgery was not an option. ( first knockdown ). Then we were discussing a liver infusion pump and after checking the liver functions of the blood work, NO we can’t install the chemo pump. (second knockdown ).

Weird humor here. I said to the Dr. ” Is this like the worst reality TV show ever. And for a million dollars, how much crap can we dump on this guy and his family? “

July 20th a port, upper chest, was installed and chemo began on 7/22. Gemcitabine and Platinol is my drink of choice. I take my poison on Fridays, 2 on and 1 off, then visit the Dr. with chemo starting again on the 2 week cycle.

Next week I have my 2nd follow up CT scan ( first one showed growth had slowed and blood work is improving). When they first reported the results everything was fine except my Alk Phos was 511. It has come down and hovering around 130 to 126. And yes they are talking about the possibility of going back to the internal chemo pump if we can get to normal on the Alk Phos and hold it there.

I’ve been to this site many times, and it is still hard to accept that I have this disease. I am still working part time @ UPS which is no cakewalk, my life is normal, except I’ve been diagnosed with CC. So, I’m not going anywhere’s soon.

Sorry for the rambling, but now you have the up to the minute version of my story. Thanks for all your caring and reaching out to others, I hope I can help others in some way.

Grover