lisa

For those men who served in the Vietname War, I think that liver flukes could be an issue, don’t you?

Hi Gavin,
The stent will probably eventually need to be replaced. However, I have been told that a metal stent lasts longer than the plastic kind. When you have the stents in, you really need to watch for signs of infection – fever and chills. If your dad experiences them, he needs to call his doctor and probably get on antibiotics. Infection is a major cause of complications and death for cc. I have battled infections about half a dozen times now that landed me in the hospital.
Best wishes,
~Lisa

I know this may be a dumb question, but does the morphine give you halluncinations?

Morphine gave me halluncinations when I was in the hospital. I thought the walls were crawling with long, stringy things.

EWWW!

Kel,
I’m also a single parent, and I hear what you say about not being there for your son. My kids are 15, 20, 22, and knowing that I will have to say good-bye to them way before my time makes my heart ache. I’m glad they have each other, but we all still need our moms, even when we think we are grown up.
I just pray that I’ll be able to hold on until they graduate from college.
I guess no matter what happens, we have to trust in the hand of God to lead, guide, and comfort them.
One thing that is good on our situation is that they are very close to their grandparents and see them almost every day. That is a comfort to me.

Gavin,
Lainy is collecting letters from caregivers and survivors. Each and every letter is important to us. Thank you so much for your letter and contribution to this important endeavor.

Sue, I asked my doctor about the nodules. I started with one a year ago and now have four small spots on my lungs. I read the CT report before the doc came in to see me. I think it’s cc mets to the lungs. He doesn’t seem to be worried about them, I supposed because he doesn’t think there is anything that can be done with nodes that small.

I had my picc line removed today, and have a fever again because of the baterial infection in the picc and the blood draw that flushed those little bacteria through my system. I’ll be getting a port-a-cath in soon.

Sue, I agree with you that there are lots of things they never tell us. My mom comes with me to the appointments, and I wonder if the doc doesn’t want to give bad news with her there. The scan report also showed that the cc lesion seemed to have increased. Why didn’t he say anything about it? Because he thinks I’m a hopeless case? Because there is no cure?

I agree we need to raise awareness. Raised awareness = raised money. Raised money = more research.

Look what happened when the campaign to raise breast cancer awareness started. Breast cancer is now practically cured when caught in the early stages.