diana-in-detroit
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Update time. Wish I had better news.
The resection didn’t happen as hoped. The surgeon got him opened up and discovered a bunch of smaller tumors that weren’t visible on the scans. It’s Stage 4, spread to the outside of his liver, his diaphragm and colon and lymph nodes. So the doctor removed a few lymph nodes that were obviously hit and closed him up.
Now the only option left is palliative chemo. He’s back home, and once he’s back on his feet they’ll start that, with the hope of buying him some more time. But at this point, he’s not curable.
We don’t know how much time he’s got. Untreated, he might last 3-6 months. With chemo, it’s up in the air, depending on how he responds. The numbers they gave were averages, though the majority of patients in his condition were considerably older, so his age is in his favor.
I am still utterly in shock.Thanks everyone.
Derin, that’s some ugly stuff you went through, but thank god you got through it. While we’re trying not to scare ourselves unnecessarily, I’m glad you shared it. Your situation sounds similar so it’ll help to know what warning signs to look for.My guy’s scheduled for surgery next Friday, March 2. So we have a little more than a week to prepare for a long stretch of ugliness.
I’m kind of glad there’s a big to-do list before then – we won’t have time to sit around and worry. His family’s doing enough of that for all of us!
Thanks for all your support.Derin – That does sound very similar to what they have planned for my guy. They’re waiting for his bilirubin level to drop to 7 or lower before they schedule a surgery. If the stents don’t get kinked or fall out and everything keeps draining like it is now, they’re talking about maybe two weeks.
All this time I’ve been wanting things to move faster, but it’ll be nice to have a little normal time to get ready for the ugly ride ahead.
I went to our primary doctor this morning for my own checkup and we spent the whole time talking about him. I left with a prescription for Xanax, for me. Yay…Wow, you all are great!
I’m still learning at a mad pace about all this, so some of this terminology makes my head spin, but I can say that the CyberKnife has not been brought up as an option. The docs aren’t sure that his tumor CAN be resected and won’t know until they get in there and get a look at it. We do know it was too dense to drill a stent through.
The surgery they have planned for him will remove his bile duct, his gall bladder, the left lobe of his liver (it’s atrophied after not draining correctly for however long it was) and attach his small intestine directly to the remaining part of the liver. So yeah, it can’t be done non-invasively. I don’t think it’s a Whipple, but it might be considered a modification. Again, I’m still learning.
It certainly is encouraging how your eyes light up at “surgery” and “resection.” I’ll take that as a good sign.
Thanks for the support and kind words. I’ll try to keep the stress (and my language) under control and keep everyone up to date as things progress.
