pak001
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Thanks everyone for your input. After blood work was done, her h/h was low and needed more blood transfusions. It seems this Gemzar is really taking a toll on her blood count.
My mom is 72 years of age and has gone thru the radiation and chemotherapy treatments at the same time. While receiving radiation, she was given about half the usual dose of Gemzar. She completed the 28 sessions of radiation and is now on the full dose of Gemzar about 1770mg once a week for 3 weeks. She has completed three months, with 3 more months left. The chemoradiation therapy has shrunk the tumor by 1.5 cm. They scanned her about a month ago with no spread. This is the good news.
The bad news is the side effects she has gone through and still going through. It’s not an easy road by all means. She’s been admitted to the hospital 3 times in the last 3 months for:
1) GI bleed
2) Blood clot in the portal vein (now on coumadin)
3) Abdominal pain, mental status changes, shortness of breath.Lately she cannot sleep at night, complains of shortness of breath.
I just pray to God that all that she has gone through and is still going through is not for nothing. I guess it’s a chance you have to take when undergoing these treatments. Just have to pray that it works because if she had to suffer so much for the treatments (not the cancer itself) I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for putting her through this. She was asymptomatic, had no problems when they found the tumor. Only became sick with the treatments.
She’s a strong woman and does not not want to stop treatments, but I think the most important thing we all have to remember is QUALITY OF LIFE VS. QUANTITY. There are so many things she cannot do now that she used to do prior to treatment and it deeply saddens all of us.I too, like you researched all of the different treatments for this type of cancer. Majority of the treatments were not pertinent to her due to the location and portal vein involvement. No surgery either.
Thanks for your responses. She did have GI bleed caused by the pressure build up in the stomach due to the portal vein thrombus. She is on coumadin. They scoped her a month ago and lasered the bleeders. She may still have some bleeders.
It seems like she is having so much issues. But, she’s staying strong.was told she had bleeding ulcers in the stomach and duodenum due to increased pressure caused by the blockage in the portal vein. the pressure causes the veins in the abdomen to.burst.
Lisa,
How are you tolerating the chemo? My mom resumes chemotherapy in 2 more weeks. She’ll be resuming Gemzar. How did you get Dr Javle to speak to Dr Estfan?My mom is in the emergency room now. Starting on heparin infusion. She just completed her last radiation treatment and here she is,going to be admitted with portal vein thrombosis. Seems like everything that could go wrong is happening.
Hi Betsy!!!
My mom is really having a tough time. I just spoke to the on call physician and he stated that in order to take reglan, she has to stop zofran. The combination can cause problems with the heart. I’ll e mail you in a short while. I have to run to my mom’s now to see how she’s doing. Talk to you soon.Compazine causes too much drowsiness and Ativan resulted in itching and headache. She has been taking Zofran and decadron, but seems to have lost its steam after a week.
Thanks all for your replies. Mom is a diabetic and her glucose levels have increased. I worry about the long term effects of decahedron as well. Hopefully after the daily radiation treatments are done, she won’t need the decadron. She has been feeling better since starting on decahedron. I have her taking only half the dose ordered every other day to try to control her glucose levels.
My mom took compazine and it knocked her out for 19 hours. Nasty medication.
They switched her to zofran. Just added ativan because zofran was not too effective.Thanks so much for the responses. If this treatment can stop the growth of the tumor, that’ll be great. My mom has a tumor about 5 cm diameter and she is asymptomatic. If it can shrink it, it’ll be even better. Just have to pray that she’ll tolerate the treatment well.
