Anyone diagnosed with Gallbladder cancer?

I have been diagnosed with Gallbladder cancer. Already had surgery to remove the T4- Stage 4a tumor that invaded half my liver, a portion of my intestines and bile ducts which were all removed. I’ve never even heard of Gallbladder cancer before I was diagnosed. They want me to start on Xeloda and then after 4 months on chemo they want me to start on both Xeloda nd radiation. I feel very ALONE with this diagnosis as only 2 in 100,000 people get it and very AFRAID bcz of the poor prognosis. Can ANYONE relate???

Yes, thank you for asking. She is eating basically everything with no digestive issues

This all sounds good, @maortiz1987. It sounds like she is getting good follow up, as well.

How is she feeling since her surgery? Is her appetite OK and does she have any problems with digestion?

CA 19.9 levels is in 14. CEA normal range as well

She had the gallbladder removal surgery on june 14th

Hello Teresa. Yes, the 1.5 cm tumor was incidentally found after a routine cholycystectomy since she had gallstones for 20 years. The tumor was staged as pT2 borderline pT3. No perotineal invasion and All margings negative for invasive carcinoma. The contrast CT scan only showed a 1cm indeterminate hypodense Liver lesion in segment 5. An MRI with contrast was ordered to better asses the lesion. She will be having a billiary duct resection eventually. Hopefully soon

Hello @maortiz1987 and welcome to Mayo Connect. I appreciate you sharing about your wife's experience with gall bladder cancer. From your post, this looks like a recent diagnosis. Is that correct?

How long ago was your wife's surgery? Was "1.5" the size of the tumor. Was her gall bladder tumor staged?

Hello, my wife is going through a very similar case like yours. She had a 1.5 gallbladder cancer tumour and possibly a 1cm liver tumour (still waiting on an MRI result) in segment V. How are you doing?

Thank you @colleenyoung

I travel 7/16 - my husband is coming with this time. We are estranged though living in the same house. He’s not much support.

The lack of a sense of urgency is really frustrating. Not just at Mayo but it seems everywhere. It’s caused resection to be no longer an option. And allowed stage 2 to progress to stage 4. And still I still and wait.
By the time treatment is started who knows how & where it’s spread.

Has anyone switched from Mayo to else where with better results or is this just how it goes?

Hi @tammie4jc, I'm tagging fellow members like @pgf @waflanders @alie @formayor @heartofgold57 @viopp @sonic997 @johnny2053 @edie78t. who have experience with gallbladder cancer either as a patient or family caregiver.

I can imagine that telling your family about the diagnosis was one of the hardest things you've had to do. You might appreciate some of the comments and resources shared in this related discussion:
- Family dynamics challenging when a parent has cancer: Want to connect
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/group-focused-on-families-and-parent-with-cancer/
When do you travel to Mayo Clinic? Will you have someone accompany you?