kris00j

Maria:
I am 3 months off of chemo. Tumor is still shrinking. Shrinkage is slowing down, but the chemo is still working! And the side effects are decreasing a bit, too. My feet still sting and burn, but everything is getting better.
Let’s keep the good news coming! I’m loving all the posts this month!
Kris

Grover:
No. The pump is filled with glycerol/ine now. Has to be filled every 6 weeks. I only got to use it 3 times. Dr. Kemeny is worried that I had those health issues after we started using it. So she’s fearful about giving me that chemo again. It’s FUDR, which is really strong.
And wouldn’t the meal be a great thing for the insurance co. to cover?? Maybe we can figure out a way!
Kris

Thanks everyone.
I saw the doctors yesterday: sort of a united front. My onc gave me the good news that the tumor is STILL shrinking, although very little this time. To remind you, I haven’t had chemo in 3 months as of today. And the sack of bile is only about 3cm, down from 7! She wondered where my drain was. I said we hadn’t touched it. She was very surprised it shrunk that much without help. So good news all around!
My onc said things are stable and she’s afraid the sack of bile was caused by the chemo thru the pump, so no chemo again. She said the best thing to do is watch. She could give me Gemzar but my blood numbers, although in the normal range, are barely in the normal range after 3 months. And Gemzar alone probably won’t do much to the tumor.
My surgeon, on the other hand, had a lot to say. My tumor started in a bile duct and sort of meandered to the top of my liver. There isn’t anything noticeable in the bile duct anymore, but he feels that is what caused the sack (guessing games!). His course of action is surgery, but not right now. What he wants to do is to cut off the left side of the liver from blood flow by doing another embolization. If anyone has seen the image Grover linked to, I brought that in for Dr. Fong. There’s a large vein/artery (I always mix them up) coming up into the middle of the liver then branching out. He wants to close off the left side: into 2 & 3, with glycerin or something. That will cause the right side: 6 & 7, to work harder and “grow”.
My tumor is in 1, 4a and 8. And the sack is in 2 & 3. So after the right side gets stronger, he will remove lots of the liver. 1, 2, 3, 4a, 4b, and parts of 5 and 8. Leaving me with part of 5, part of 8, all of 6 & 7.
I haven’t looked yet: wonder if anyone else has had this done before resection? And what are the side effects I can expect? I’m figuring fatigue will be a big side effect, until the right side catches up and takes over.
Kind of scary, but at least this makes sense. I just don’t want to lose my “feeling good” health! I just keep saying this all beats the alternative.

After the appointments, I had dinner with an old friend I’ve known basically since we were 8 or 9. She works in Times Square. Since I didn’t get done until 4:30, I went to her office and we stopped at a local place for dinner and “catch up”. Good times!

Kris