devoncat
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I dont have any suggestions. I just let mine hang on out. External drains can be tricky. Hope your dad sails through his.
Just a reminder to keep it clean as it can become clogged and infected.
Kris
I want a private suite!
Good luck getting that stent right. Let us know how it goes. Sending warm thoughts.Kris
We looked, but because everyone is in the same boat there are not many tickets left for surrounding cities and the ones available are over 700 euros each.
The ryanair option didnt work either because of flight times and travel distance. I am just not strong enough anymore. Perhaps it is for the best and my body will be tip top for surgery on Monday.
Kris
There will be no Paris for me. France is having a general strike on the airports are pretty much closed and our flights have been cancelled. I have been looking forward to this for months and it is sad I know I will never see Jimmy Buffett again in concert. Cancer sucks…as do the French right now.
Kris
Hi Lisa,
Welcome to the board. This disease progresses differently in everyone so there is really no hard and fast rule.The stent will make your mom feel better and that is half the way there. I agree that your mother should be told as much as possible. She may have things she wants to do or say.
We are a great support…both emotionally and educationally. We are here for you if you need anything.
Kris
Welcome to the site and hope we all can help you with the support and information you need.
I am a slow recoverer. It does take awhile to get everything going again and your strength up. I wasnt anywhere near recovered for 4 to 6 months after my resection. It is a hard surgery on the body. They say something like give one month of recovery for each hour of anestesia (boy is that spelled bad)
As to the cancer coming back. Yes it does sometimes,no it doesnt sometimes. Another member here called Sue and I had our liver resections at the same time. My cancer came back after 2 years, hers didnt and now she is working close to being 4 years cancer free in a couple of months. So you just dont know which group you will fall into…and neither does your doctor.
Take care.
KrisI was on gemzar cisplatin for about 4 months last fall and now I am on gemzar oxalitplatin now. I think you can stay on it for as long as it works, but your body will need some breaks to rebuild itself during that time.
Kris
I dont know about the first time I had cc, but on my reoccurance, all bloodwork, tumor markers and scans came back normal and only opening me up showed the new tumor.
I would say the biopsies are the best confirmation given my experience.
Kris
Thanks for everyones support. I am really looking forward to Paris and Jimmy Buffett. We are there only 3 nights and we have decided only 1 big thing per day. I am choosing the Decorative Arts Museum and Hans hasnt made up his mind yet on his day.
I talked to the surgeon again today. He warned me that it could take up to 3 weeks before the stomach/intestine realignment worked itself out but also it could take as little as 5 days. They will install a “vomit bag” for lack of a better word. This will allow all the vomit and digestive fluids to come out through a tube in my stomach instead of the traditional way. If the surgery takes, they will remove this. If the surgery doesnt work, I will keep this forever and be sustatined by nutrician bags. I havent heard of one of these little bags before but it sounds weird.
Anyway, I think I have still made the right decision for me. I want to be as normal as possible.
Kris
Nidhi,
I am so glad you can back to update us. I was worried I sounded too bossy. But like I have said before, this place is like a family and that means you get lots of opinions! but it also means you get alot of support and understand.I hope they get the pain under control. It is so hard to mentally prepare for anything when you are in pain. It is the easiest time to give up and go into yourself so this is when your mental strength and love for your mother needs to flow into her.
I have both primperan and ondem for vomiting. Both seem to work well for me so lets hope it is the same with your mother. If she continues to vomit and it appears the tablets cant be kept down long enough to work, you can ask her doctor to prescribe a suppository for vomiting.
Hope things improve.
Kris
Margaret, glad you got him to the doctor and those where the drugs they gave me when I showed up once at the er with an infection. Took of days to clear up, but it did so lets hope the same for Tom.
Hang in there and we are all just a mouse click away.
Kris
Welcome to the site, and yes you are in the right place! We are a very supportive group and do try our best to help everyone.
The doctor is right about not being able to stage you before surgery. He will not be able to see the true extent of the cancer before he opens you up, takes a look around,and possibly tests some lymph nodes.
Second opinions are very important and it is true you want someone who has had experience with this surgery and cancer before. That doesnt mean you shouldnt have your surgery where you plan to. You could ask for the name of the surgeon he trained under and talk to him. Where I live, there are 2 surgeons that have experience with the whipple and will do them here in my small town, yet they have no experience with liver resection and working with reattaching and restructuring the bile ducts so if you have a klatskins tumor you would get automatically sent to the big univerisity hospital. So cc is surgically treated in different hospitals where I live, depending on where the tumor is located. So I do know whipples can be done at smaller hospitals…at least in Sweden.
Complications are not uncommon with this surgery, so it is wonderful to know someone local has experience. So even if you get the big surgery somewhere else, your local surgeon might have a clue. That is good.
I saw an oncologist only after my surgery. IF the doctors think they can get it with surgery, you wont need the oncologist till after if you want some chemo. It might be good to try to find an oncologist now if you want chemo after surgery or just want to talk to someone about the possibility of having it. There are varying opinions on chemo after surgery. Read up on it, listen to the doctors and make your own decisions if you want it after surgery.
Good luck with your surgery and you have more questions, ASK!
Kris
We see confusion here often for several different reasons but often, like Marion said it is dehydration or having your body salts and minerals out of wack.
The true extent of this cancer cannot be determined until you are opened up. I dont know why this is true for this cancer but it is. CC is great at hiding from all types of scans so the doctors cant get a true picture until you are opened up. So dont be disheartened at your doctor, he most likely isnt ignorant, just cc is a weird cancer.
Hang in there.
Kris
