tiah
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Hi ladies, yes they did a blood culture although no results yet. Her oncologist just came to see her and luckily I was here at the time. He said the bloods are looking good and he wants to keep her in hospital for about 2 more days (she’s been in hospital for 48 hours now). Happy to know she’s on the mend, she’s looking a lot brighter today.
As for FOLFIRINOX treatment, I asked why he selected this and he said gem/via just isn’t effective enough to shrink a tumor for intention of surgery, and is often used as more of a palliative measure or to extend life, whereas FOLFIRINOX has a better response rate and because mum is young, fit and healthy he wanted to hit her hard.
Round 2 of chemo has proven to be very tough. Mum had to go to the ED yesterday as oral antibiotics weren’t cutting it for a respiratory infection and she had 2 days of a mild fever but then had a high grade fever yesterday. IV antibiotics were started immediately, then once stable was transferred to a private hospital under her oncologists care. She’s still receiving antibiotics every 6 hours via her port. Fingers crossed she recovers and she’ll be okay for her next round of chemo in 6 days. I just feel so sad for her at the moment, she had concert tickets and missed the concert tonight because she’s in hospital, but she knows her health is her number one priority.
Hi Genevieve. Yes you are correct, her HPB surgeon we saw through the Royal Adelaide Hospital HPB surgery unit. There is one other major surgical unit in HPB located at Flinders Medical Centre, the states second largest hospital. Getting an opinion at Flinders is something I hadn’t thought about until you have mentioned it. We are very confident in the current surgeon however second opinions can’t hurt. Now that she is into her second round of chemotherapy, and I believe they plan on doing a scan at 8 weeks (4 rounds of chemo), should I suggest seeing a different surgeon now or once the scan has been done?
If there is any HPB surgeons who you could recommend in your state that would also be appreciated, although it seems there isn’t a shortage of them here in Adelaide.
Thanks ladies. I will be going with her this afternoon to get her disconnect from her 5FU infusion (she has to carry around a bottle for 2 days). I don’t think we plan on seeing the Dr today but as soon as I can go to an appointment to see him I will ask him about the choice of chemotherapy. Also, considering how well she is coping with the chemotherapy I was wondering if radiation therapy would have much benefit, or would the toxicity risk be too high. I will discuss this with him also and then keep you posted.
