pcl1029

Hi,
Is your sister on any anticoagulant like Coumadin, Lovenox ?
What other meds she is on now beside GEM/CIS?
God bless.

Hi,
is it possible for you to send me the CT scan report; (the impression section or the findings) through here or my email.?
I still not get the complete picture.(PS as you know ,I am not a doctor) but the reports is easier and more specific for me to understand .
God bless.

Hi,
I drank 2 cup a day black coffee (6 oz,drip coffee like Maxwell, the old fashion kind ) before I felt tired about 6 -12months before I discovered my disease. Then I increased to 4-5 cups per day until the lucky day I discovered my CCA. To day I drink 1 cup of coffee and 2-3 cups of green tea . I am 63 now.
Anyway, I think 2 cups of coffee is ok. ( not the Starbucks , since they are about double on the mg basis of caffeine content as compare to the old fashion kind)
God bless.

Hi,
Every patient is different in the decision making for the treating this disease.
CAM ( complimentary and alternative) treatment is another way some of us who wants to go this route. I personally believe it will help the overall picture of relieving symptoms and strengthen up the overall health status to a limited extend. For example, ginger for nausea,gingsing for breathing and energy,milk thistle for cleansing the liver and Essiac tea as you mentioned for the need you are believing in. Alternative care like acupuncture may help if the practitioner is Very experienced but the quality of treatment is different among them and even different degree for the patient each time by the same practitioner (ie: the placement of the needle,the depth of the needle,the duration of the treatment per each needle,the herbs the needle area used ,among others is through experience rather than just degree and knowledge of that practitioner. It is ,in my opinion, very difficult to find a good one here in the States or Europe than in China;but if you are lucky and can find one ,it will help to relieve pain and restore the overall energy field for the body. Yoga and meditation proven to help patient for the stress of cancer. But they cannot shrink the tumor,if lucky,it may prolong the time .
I agree, but not disappointed in providing CAM and other non traditional method for treating this cancer on this message board. I myself, a patient of this cancer for 44 months, besides taking the chemotherapy,still open to the ideas of using complimentary medicine like Chinese herbal medicine; other smart caretakers I know using other products through their own research after they learn or read about the information from our web site as well as on others. And if you are interested in using CAM as the treatment of choice for this disease,this may not be the site you want solely to relied on.
I believe we do not put more emphasis on CAM simply because of their effectiveness and the uncertainty; and the lack of true and proven efficacy of CAM from my point of view being trained in the western medicine culture.
http://www.cancer.net/all-about-cancer/treating-cancer/complementary-and-alternative-medicine-cam/about-complementary-and-alternative-medicine

With regard to palliative care, the need and degree of care is different from patient to patient ; you can choose quality over quantity of life after careful research;you can choose pain medicines to escape the reality;you can choose the standard palliative care suggested by the doctors; you can do it at home or at the hospital or at hospice. Or simply do nothing .But as a caregiver myself also, sometimes the path and length of making such a decision will be provided by the condition of the disease progress rather than day to day planning for the patient. But if you read our members’ experience on the discussion forum often, you will have the most useful and up to date sense of taking care the patient in palliative care and I do believe that is the best forum about palliative care advise.
God bless.

Hi,
You can choose to have the plastic stents insert every 2-3months depends on whether the doctor wants to that. Did he give you a reason that plastic stent will not be an option if your dad does not mind ? Metal stent usually last longer between 6-18 months,again depends on each patient. In theory, mental stent is permanent and cannot be removed. But I know some doctor views differently on that.
2nd opinion is not a bad idea even your dad is in care of by OSU.
Chemotherapy can help,but is not proven its effectiveness for every patient. Therefore I do not disagree with your dad’s decision. It is indeed a very tough decision to make to have or have no chemotherapy. However the decision must be his own and not from suggestions by other people who are just afraid of the word”cancer” and without careful research on the subject of bile duct cancer.
Try to have the best thanksgiving with you dad today and may God really bless you and your family .

God bless

Hi,
I think the more he eats,the higher his blood sugar(BS) will be. Normally, it takes about3- 4 hour to let the BS back to the range of measurement before he ate. The half life of metformin is about 6 hours, therefore it will take much longer than an hour for metformin to even start working.that is why the BS was going up even he took the metformin an hour After he ate the banana 2 hour ago.BS went up to 302 is related to that banana.My suggestion is try not to eat for 4 hours ,then repeat the BS test and see whether the BS is going down. If it goes back to 102-120 where he was at before, then you know the high BS was from food rather than the chemotherapy. To answer whether your husband ‘ s chemotherapy,which I assume he is still on Gemzar alone will cause him to have high BS( hyperglycemia) or not, the answer is yes, it is around 30% especially when use with cisplatin together.
God bless.

Hi,
Yes, we both had CCA. The big difference was I got diagnosis at a much earlier stage with no symptoms ( tiredness may be , but if you work all day long at work and do house chores like lawn mowing and do maintenance of the house after work) how Do you distinguish that tiredness is related to your work or the disease you have inside. I was diagnosed in stage IIb when CAT SCAN shown I had CCA of 6×8 cm in size). However, in contrary , she discovered her extra hepatic CCA when she noticed her dark brown color of the urine and the clay color stool,jaundice too. At that time she was already at stage IV with mets to the omentum, that is why I am in a unique position of being a patient and a caregiver. I know both sizes of the good and the ugly of this disease.( I advised her and her husband from day 1 till her final day on earth. She was a good Christian,she did not blame anyone, she had no pain most of the time, and she understand God’ way was the best way for her. Hundreds of her church friends visited her during the final days. When my daughter prayed and thank her for everything she did for her, my sis-in-law was to weak to talk, but a couple tears drops running down in her closed left eye to let my daughter know that she was moved by her prayer and understood her good heart effort was not in vain. Two days later,she passed away at hospice with a smile on her face according to her husband.)
Iam not saying I am the only one to know about this disease in such an unique way, but I know I need to do more for conquering this physical and emotional depending disease.
God bless