iowagirl

Whoohoo Kris…..go get ’em! Congratulations on the break and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!!

Sounds almost like I”m back in business. Chocolate raspberry cake with chocolate truffle frosting and raspberry gel filling. YUM!!! Wish I could whip up and send off all those cake orders.

Gavin, I was just about to post this as well. Some of the news reports just say he died of cancer, but many say he died of bile duct cancer after treatment.

Iowa Girl

Lainy, if we get down south this winter….I’ll make a cake and bring it along…..a celebration cake

Had a meeting today with the cancer center Thrive Program…a cancer fitness and wellness program. I swear….I don’t know how I”m going to fit all this junk into a schedule and have any time left.. I had a session today to determine just how out of shape I am…..and then I’m to meet with a physical therapist for two days a week…40 min sessions…to try to regain some stamina. I know that at the end of round 3 chemo, I had about 5 days where I felt pretty great….energy level really ramped up…..but then knocked down again by day one chemo of round 4….and I still feel really fatigued and tired all the time. I’m guessing that it won’t take long after chemo is over and my energy level will be back up, but stamina may not be there. I think I walked 300 feet today…..as measured….but in about 4 minutes…and ended up feeling nauseous and back hurting. So, we will be starting out slowly. They seemed to understand my limitations…so maybe this may work. It’s going to be hard to do while doing chemo though…but I guess the point it….not to lose any “more” stamina.

Then, I also decided to meet once a week with a psychologist to try to deal with some of my emotional issues regarding having this cancer.

Add to that….the chemos yet to go….and blood draws weekly for Coumadin levels that change the medication amounts weekly…..a mother in law with a serious medical problem …..a trip to Mayo for followup scans….meetings with financial people since my husband just retired….I look up at the clock and it’s suddenly 11:30 at night….time for bed…and I have barely made a dent into the list of things I’d hoped to do that day….and most days the list only has one or two things on it. I am sooooo looking forward to autumn ….and this being over with….and we can get our lives back….or at least to the point of moving on to do something “fun”.

Iowa Girl

I just finished the adjuvant chemo for round 4 of Gem/Cis following my resection in late Feb 2014. Mayo onc wants me to do 4-6 rounds as tolerated. My local onc said that I “could” stop now because Mayo wasn’t specific, but I think that is splitting hairs. As tolerated to me means…go for 6 if at all possible…and that is what I am going to do. At this point, I don’t want to look back some day and say , “What if?” But, I have to tell you that having gotten to the 4 rounds …felt pretty good when that port needle came out last Wed and I could put another star sticker on my chart. So, if my blood counts stay good….and I can stay on schedule…..get through the last four infusions of rounds 5 and 6, then the chemo is done in late August and my port will come out. I don’t know which I am looking more forward to. The chemo port was put in really wonky and is a constant trouble to access. Before that though, I will go back to Mayo for another scan on August 1 and blood work. For now, my doctors all say that Ihey are surprised at how well I’m doing at this point….and blood work looks really good so far…at least good enough to continue through more chemo.

I’m sorry that I did not see your post and question about H. Pylori. What is known in research (in particular from Thailand) is that H. Pylori can exist in the bile ducts and was found in a significant amount of biles ducts of CC patients in a large study. As to how it gets into the bile ducts is another matter, but one theory is that a small few of the H. Pylori bacteria move from the stomach into the bile ducts via a gerd type motion (that’s probably not a good discription, but best I can do right now with chemo brain). Once in the bile ducts, the H. Pylori sets up house, grows and causes inflammation of the epithelial cells of the bile ducts. Once that happens,, over time, the area gets further irritated and eventually, precancerous and then cancerous growths begin.

I was found to have antibodies to H. Pylori, but never have been treated to get rid of it…..yet the poo test showed I no longer harbor the bacteria….so what happened to it. The Only explanation I can figure out is that it was “cut out” during my resection surgery when they removed my left liver lobe. I know that during the year before I was diagnosed, I first had C-Diff, a bad bacterial infection of the colon. That took Vancamiacin , a very strong antibiotic to kill off the C-Diff. Tests proved it was gone, but diarrhea continued just not quite so bad for the remainder of the year. Twice I was given a Z-Pack antibiotic and twice, the diarrhea went away on the 5th day of the antibiotic and everything was normal. The first time, it came back two months later. The second time, it didn’t come back ….but before one month had elapsed, I had surgery to remove the liver lobe. Vancamyacin can not kill H-Pylori…..but the Z-Pack is the right type of antibiotic to have an “effect” on H. Pylori…..just not kill it off completely. Thus, in my mind, the only way that H. Pylori was removed from my system was by cutting out the area in which it had settled and caused inflammation……that left liver lobe. H. Pylori is known for causing ulcers in the stomach…and eventually can cause stomach cancer. I hope that answer your questions about H. Pylori and my theory. Please feel free to share this with anyone you wish…including Norbert’s doctors. BTW…the meds to get rid of H. Pylori include two antibiotics and a prescription Prilosec type medication all at the same time.

I just caught up with yoiur latest posts about Norbert. It sounds like you’ve been having a very rough time of it.

I’m just going through some older posts and found yours. I needed a lift tonight and your story did that for me. Thanks for posting. Julie