carole
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A tip from my oncologist’s nurse when I said I didn’t like the taste of Ensure or the other supplements: Carnation Instant Breakfast. I would make a shake mixing a package with milk, ice cream, and bananas or other fruit. I couldn’t finish a whole one at a time, but it was a great calorie-rich snack I could sip during the day.
I did have one of the those nerve blocks, and I highly recommend it.
Sorry to have come to this thread a month late. I had a nerve block a few years ago, the kind that Marion described as “electively destroys nerve tissue by the use of alcohol or pheno, cryoanalgesia”. It was Pheno, I believe. I had been having severe pain caused by swollen lymph nodes pressing on my spine and was consuming more and more pain medications with no end in sight. It was like a miracle – within a week or so I had no pain at all; my life was completely changed. I was told at the time that the block might last weeks, months, or years, and that the pain might come back gradually or swiftly: there was no way of knowing.
The procedure was easy; sort of a twilight sleep as they went into my back with long needles; I didn’t feel anything.
Because those lymph nodes were removed when I had my resection six months later, there’s no way to tell how long-lasting the relief would have been. I now have metastases that are growing and finding new places to attack, so I hope there will be possibilities of blocks if and when I get such pain again.
I had radiation (and chemo – Xeloda) in fall 2007 after a successful resection of the liver and the lymph nodes that were enlarged (Sloan-Kettering). Neither the radiation nor the chemo were a problem.
However, only about a third of the liver was resected, so it doesn’t fit your case.
I had a recurrence in ovaries in 2008 (removed the ovaries surgically – easy) and lymph nodes and lung at the end of the year. I’ve been on Xeloda again for a year, which worked excellently (reduced the lymph nodes), and with minor side effects. But now my blood tests don’t look good, so I’m back on Gemzar as of yesterday. Relevant point to this thread: no recurrence in liver as of yet.
No matter what, these treatments have given me outstanding quality of life for 2.5 years (not counting the sugeries, etc.). I couldn’t ask for more, and I’m grateful for every day.
It’s lucky you were able to have a resection. All best as you continue on this hard road!
