vincently22
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Hello Pauline,
Thanks for your info. I’m just wondering if the drug you wrote is the same as the drug that is used as antibiotic. Is it used for itching as off-label? I’ll bring that up to the doctor when we see him.Hello,
Mom’s temperature went up to 102 F last nite and we gave her 2 pills of tylenol and it went away. She Aveeno soap does help with the itching but doesnt seem to last long (2-3 hrs) so it’s not that good unless she can shower several times a day but i’m afraid she’s gonna get sick from the cold. She ended up trying some Chinese cream that we already had at home and it seemed to work very well. It’s been several hours since she applied it and she told me there is no more itching at this point.I’m wondering if anybody try the “Tian Xian Products #6” and if it’s working? Here is the link
http://www.tianxian.com/products/products.asp#1
I’m frustrated and can’t wait for mom to get the stent. Sometimes it really sucks and it makes me think that why can’t they start chemo on her earlier. I looked back thinking had we not taking mom to Garfield’s hospital but to USC instead, how much of a difference would it make. But at the same time, it was because her family doctor works for Garfield hospital and since she was there, she was stuck for about 6 weeks and by the time mom was discharged, it was Christmas time and every doctors were busy.
Anyway, yeah the healthcare system here can really frustrate people ‘cuz they have to wait for a while to get their treatment done unless it’s super urgent
Hello Marions,
Thanks and yeah, hopefully mom can be eligible. So she Aveeno soap seemed to be working for her so that’s good. In the mean time, we’re still waiting for the GI dr. to put a stent on her. Dr. El khoueri faxed the request over his office and just waiting to hear from him. Hopefully they can schedule her to do it on Monday. We dont know what mom’s bilirubin level is today but she looks yellower and i feel like the plastic stent is no longer working But I hope we can temporarily relieve her itching while waiting for the stent to be done.Hello,
Just got back from USC. Anyway, at this point we’re gonna stick with USC since they do things alot faster than City of Hope. I got bad news though. On Monday 1/5, they ran a lab for mom and her bilirubin was 2.5 (comparing to 1.7 on Dec 19th). Then today (1/
her bilirubin went up to 4.7 and that is not good. I’m assuming her plastic stent is no longer effective and it start to get blocked. Dr. El-khoeiry tried calling the GI specialist to schedule mom to do a stent but couldnt’ get a hold yet. HOpefully he can schedule her to do it on Monday as mom started to get more itching lately It sucks to see her going through that again while nothing I can do. I tried to buy her the Aveeno oatmeal soap and the lotion which helps to relieve her itching and hopefully it’ll work.
Dr. Vincent Chung called back today and told us the only treatment is chemotherapy. I told him about USC has a trial (phase 2) using Trastuzumab (being used to treat breast cancer) to treat cc with very lil side effect comparing to other combos. Dr. Chung told me that we should take advantage of it if mom is qualified. In order to be a candicate, her tumor has to have a Her-2 target cell. WE gave Dr. El-khoeiry the slide and he will be sending it out to the lab for them to evaluate if it has the her-2 target. Hopefully her tumor has that target. If not then he would try to Gem and 5 FU combo. Anyway, it’s pretty sad to know that mom’s cancer is at stage 4 and both Dr. El and Chung told us that it’s been there for a while already but not recently. I’m just praying that one of the therapy will work for her. In the mean time, i just want mom’s itching will be relieved asap.Forgot to mention that he would call dr. El Khoueri on Monday and have him to schedule for a PET scan asap. We’ll be seeing dr. El KHoueri at 8 am on monday anyway.
Morning,
Just came back from the dr. Genik’s office. He looked at the scan and told us the same thing. He saw an ulcer at her liver and something at mom’s lymph nodes and she’ll need to do a PET scan to find out whether those are cancer tumor or not. If those are not, then he could do surgery but if it is, then the only option is chemotherapy.Hello,
It got sad news today. Went to see the surgical dr (dr. Joseph Kim) at City of Hope and he said that looked like it’s been spread to liver (from the image from Garfield hospital) and the newer CAT scan confirmed that. Anyway, so the radiologist is on vacation right now and will be back on the Tue Jan 6th and they’ll determine if they could do chemo-radiation or just chemotherapy.
Happy New Year everyone!Sorry to hear that Gavin,
Well, I hope 2009 will be a bright and lucky years for you, your family, and everyone of us! Hope that your dad is doing much better now!MERRY XMAS everyone!
I just wanna wish everyone a Merry Xmas! Mom has been healthy lately. She could walk for a few blocks without breathing hard. We’ll see Dr. Kim from city of Hope on Dec 31st. I’ll keep everybody updated!Hello,
So I took mom to USC today to meet up with Dr. El-khouery. He looked at the scans (taken from Garfield hospital)and he said it’s not clear. He can’t really tell what stage it is and it doesnt have that information (staging) on the medical report/record. City of Hope told us the same thing. He recommended us to do a CT scan at USC and that they have one of the best technology. He said after the new CT scan, he’ll try to get Dr. Genik (surgeon) who will be working with Dr. Selby to decide whether it is resectable or not. He mentioned that he doesn’t have any doubt about City of Hope but he claim that the staff he works with at USC are one of the best (if not best) and they have lots of experience about cholangiocarcinoma. He said that also one of the most experienced bile duct oncologist at City of Hope just left their institute and the current ones are kind of new. But he said it’s really up to us. However, he would definitely recommend us to go with them (make them primary instead of 2nd opinion). He said we could also meet both surgical oncologists from both institutions if we want and most likely we’lll do that. We made an appoitment for the Scan 2morrow and he’ll try to contact the surgical oncologist (dr. Genik) today and would try his best to get us an appointment to meet up with Dr. Genik sooner than Dec 31st.
City of Hope called us today and gave us an appointment with the surgical oncologist (dr. Joseph Kim) on Dec 31st. So in the mean time, hopefully we can meet up with Dr. Genik (USC) to see what he thinks.
Thanks Sandy for giving me advices. I’ve been very busy with preparing for the final but I’ll try to call other institutions after final tomorrow. Gotta get back to studying now.Hello,
Thanks Sophie for the information. Tomorrow we’ll be taking mom to Dr. El-khoueiry at USC tomorrow. I’m studying right now for my final on friday. Hopefully I can get alot of studying done so i wont have to worry much while accompanying mom. Haven’t heard back from Dr. Giap yet, so I guess maybe he’s too busy and was nice enough to offer looking at mom’s record and gave his opinion that “y-90” is an option for her. Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t bug him any more since mom will have Dr. Vincent Chung (city of Hope) and Dr. El-Khoueiry (USC). Have a good night everyone!We went to City of HOpe today and Dr. Vincent Chung looked at the record, he’ll have to meet up with other surgical oncologist to determine what they’ll do with mom. In the mean time, mom has to do a stress test first to make sure she’ll be ok if there is anything that need to be done (surgery or radiation). Hopefully mom is still a candicate for surgery. But he said it’ll prolly take about 2 weeks before anything can be done. And I did bring up my concern what if it spreads etc. He told me that another 2 weeks shouldnt make much of a difference b/c he wants to minimize the risk. Also, if it really spreads that fast, then the radiation/surgery (if qualified) is not gonna work.
