cathy1024
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I had a flu shot last year in the middle of my Gem/Cis but I don’t know any research behind it.
Cathy
Hey Dorien,
I can tell you a little bit. My Doctor and I chose to do chemo embolization because of my circumstances. Everyone is different. I’ve never been officially staged but my guess is stage 4 since I have a tumor in my liver plus satellites in there, some lymph node involvement and bone mets. I was diagnosed 1/12. I did a drug study for unknown primary to start, then after CC diagnosis switched to Gem/Cis.
I have been on a chemo break for about 2 months.
I have one larger tumor in the left lobe of the liver and it is really high in the dome which is very difficult to access so that was part of the reason for the chemo embo.
I had it done about a week ago on 8/15. The procedure is very straight forward and I was aware of very little or just didn’t care. They had a bit of trouble getting through my very small arteries but once they got through everything worked fine. I was in the hospital overnight….I had no nausea, some mild pains more related to my bone mets rather than the procedure. I was really tired for 2 days and pretty much just felt better lying down. As they said I felt minor flu like. By Day 4 I could get up and around and after a week back to normal. I did get a hematoma at the insertion site but otherwise all is good.
I won’t know until Sept 16 when I get my follow up MRI and CT scan how well it worked.
Hope this helps.
CathyWith a one day delay because of insurance I had the chemo embolization or chemo embo as they call it here about 12 hours ago. I had an extremely deep artery followed by extremely small arteries that extended a possible 45 min procedure into a 3 hour one. They had to use ultrasound and 3 very smart Docs to get through the maze but once they were in placing the chemo was a piece of cake. Needless to say I developed a hematoma at the entry point that was almost lemon sized but was down to pea size in 3 hours.
Of course my family was a bit worried when it took so long but were thrilled I got it done. My biggest issue was all the bone Mets along my spine and my fractured sacrum. Lying flat on your back for 7 hours is not something I would recommend. While lying there they couldn’t find a drug combo that would make me feel better but now the combo of Percocet and Ibuprofin has taken care of it. This is the first time I have had this procedure. Follow up MRI in a month.
I have heard energy and activity wise it can take from 3 days to 3 weeks to get back to normal. Is this true?Just keep on swimming!
CathyMark, how are you doing with the no cold foods on the FOLFOX? Plus the chemo that goes home? Is that a pain or do you not even notice it?
Mark,
Glad to see the good news. You are one of the few people on this site now that has bone mets and liver tumors. That is where mine are. I just finished radiation of my sacrum ( I have a fracture there) and have had radiation on the sternum, T4-T7 on my spine and my left humerus twice. The next chemo I’m trying is the FOLFOX and I’m glad it’s working for you. I hope I am that blessed too.
Great news for you…keep it going!Cathy
