middlesister1

I am so sorry that you are starting off your marriage with CC, but still very excited for you and your upcoming wedding. Mom received her diagnosis on their 54th anniversary, and they thought that would be their last. However, for their upcoming 57th we’ll be celebrating by going back down to Fort Myers Beach in October.

There is hope. Have a wonderful time , put the CC on the back burner (yeah- easy to do) and then come back refreshed with your sleeves rolled up and ready to fight .

Congratulations and best wishes,
Catherine

Hi-

Welcome to the board. I’m sorry about your Dad and that you had some doctors who caused delay in treatment. As Marion said, very important to be treated where they know CC and second opinions can be valuable. Although not all will have the same results, my mother is now in remission with no evidence of disease after having Y-90. She did 3 cycles of GEM/CIS, and then two Y-90 treatments (Feb & Nov 2014). For the second Y-90, she took xeloda before and after. Additionally, I know the doctor gave her a “high dose”. Now they have us coming back in 6-months for scans.

I wish you the same success for your Dad,
Catherine

Hi,

My Mother went through 3 rounds of Gem/Cis after an unsuccessful surgery in 2013. The side effects during the first cycle were very bad – she ended up in bed (when not nauseous), dehydrated, and thinking that she might not do the second cycle. We had been told it would give her an average of 3 months more and she was ready to quit. We took her to the ER for fluids, and that helped turn her around, so she did continue the chemo (but was a day late for second infusion). Lesson learned was although she didn’t have sever dehydration symptoms , we should have taken her sooner for fluids.

For second cycle, they increased fluids, gave higher dose of Emend in her IV, and gave her dexamethasone to take in hospital and after getting home. I think it also helped that she had recovered more from the surgery, but it was so completely different- although tired, she felt so much better that she did not even need to take the nausea meds (had been on 2 first cycle).

So, with how bad the first cycle was, I definitely understand quality of life. Also, I have a father with lung cancer who will not be doing more chemo when it starts growing again. However, for Mom it shrunk her tumor about 20%. This gave her time and then we moved on to SIRT, We are almost at 3 years since diagnosis and she at this point has no evidence of disease. So we are very glad Mom gave it a try. Her thought was she can always stop if she can’t tolerate, but why not try.

Best wishes,
Catherine

Dear Ranagni,

I am very sorry to hear of your loss of your mum. And, thank you for your very kind offer to help others even in your time of loss.

My heartfelt condolences are with you,

Catherine

I love when I can start my day reading such a wonderful post. I am so happy for both of you and thankful for the hope that you are giving to so many!!!
Catherine

Hello,
I’m not sure if this will help, but my mother can not tolerate opioids so when she had severe pain, they prescribed fentanyl patches. I was worried about side effects and asked work colleagues. Response from a few was that when they had family members in end stage cancer (not CC), switching from morphine to fentanyl not only kept the pain in check, but allowed their loved ones to be more lucid at the end and gave them time to talk and gave them some more quality time together.

Love and hugs,
Catherine

Dear Rebecca,

You have my deepest condolences on the loss of your beloved mother. Seven weeks is such a short time to even come to terms with the diagnosis, but you did a wonderful job on getting your mother the best care available.

Take care of yourself and let us know how you are,
Catherine