Thank you Colleen and all of you kind people…. Yes she started this past week, so far she is feeling fine, thank you for asking. She’s got lots of local family and friends supporting her… I’ll see her in two months, arrangements made, I’ll stay for 2weeks in April… then plan to return in the fall, after chemo is over, and hopefully we’ll do a road trip from Florida to New York and then up to Toronto, Canada … keeping the faith 🙏🏼❤️
Hi @heartofgold57, I love your username. This must be so hard for you to be so far from your big sister. It's obvious that she means a lot to you.
It is not unusual to have chemo for several months. Chemotherapy is given over a period of time, like the case with your sister. Different drugs may be given over a period of days or on different days. The week "off" is to give the good cells time to recover. You see, chemotherapy goes throughout the body (systemic), killing cancer cells that may have spread. It also kills or damages the fast-producing cells in our body, like blood cells. Luckily these cells replenish after chemotherapy. But they make take some time to replenish, so during that time she may be fatigued (low red blood cells) or more prone to infection (low white blood cells).
Thank you Colleen and all of you kind people…. Yes she started this past week, so far she is feeling fine, thank you for asking. She’s got lots of local family and friends supporting her… I’ll see her in two months, arrangements made, I’ll stay for 2weeks in April… then plan to return in the fall, after chemo is over, and hopefully we’ll do a road trip from Florida to New York and then up to Toronto, Canada … keeping the faith 🙏🏼❤️
My big sister (by choice, not biology) had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder (plus some of her liver)... Diagnosed Stage 3... It's been a couple of months and she still has a drain because she had developed an infection too... She starts chemo the first week of February. for 7 months ( 2 weeks on/ 1 week off). I'm doing what I can, from afar (she is in Florida, I'm in CA) by gathering data to help her / support her as best I can... My first question I have is this -- 7 months of chemo??? Isn't that a very long time for chemo? ... She's been told the chemo is given to slow down the growth/keep it from spreading but there is no cure, remission is not possible. My second question - Are there studies out there for people in stage 3 who decide NOT to do chemo and how long on average someone with stage 3 will live in comparison to someone who does the chemo (how long on average will they live after chemo is completed)?
Hi @heartofgold57, I love your username. This must be so hard for you to be so far from your big sister. It's obvious that she means a lot to you.
It is not unusual to have chemo for several months. Chemotherapy is given over a period of time, like the case with your sister. Different drugs may be given over a period of days or on different days. The week "off" is to give the good cells time to recover. You see, chemotherapy goes throughout the body (systemic), killing cancer cells that may have spread. It also kills or damages the fast-producing cells in our body, like blood cells. Luckily these cells replenish after chemotherapy. But they make take some time to replenish, so during that time she may be fatigued (low red blood cells) or more prone to infection (low white blood cells).
I recently received a like in a previous post and wanted to give an update to my wife’s (56 years old) current non condition. She had her gallbladder removed end of July last year and cancer found in gallbladder. We recently did another set of CT scans and blood tests (first scans done in September were unremarkable). The scans came back still unremarkable. So far not going forward with additional surgery (open surgery with removal of part of the liver and surrounding lymph nodes) or chemotherapy has been the right decision for us (surgery and/or chemo were what doctors were recommending). I read a research paper that said patients with PT1A cancer (my wife had PT2A) were not better off with additional treatments. I don’t remember all the specifics for PT2A but all except for the 2nd stage were good - away from liver, well differentiated (I think) and relatively small 0.6cm. I recognize that everyone’s situation is different but hope this can help guide you what decisions to make for yourself. Our next CT scans and tests are in 6 months (dr recommend 3 months but wife’s anxiety wanted to extend).
My big sister (by choice, not biology) had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder (plus some of her liver)... Diagnosed Stage 3... It's been a couple of months and she still has a drain because she had developed an infection too... She starts chemo the first week of February. for 7 months ( 2 weeks on/ 1 week off). I'm doing what I can, from afar (she is in Florida, I'm in CA) by gathering data to help her / support her as best I can... My first question I have is this -- 7 months of chemo??? Isn't that a very long time for chemo? ... She's been told the chemo is given to slow down the growth/keep it from spreading but there is no cure, remission is not possible. My second question - Are there studies out there for people in stage 3 who decide NOT to do chemo and how long on average someone with stage 3 will live in comparison to someone who does the chemo (how long on average will they live after chemo is completed)?
Hello @hopefull33250, we were able to consult with a GI Oncology specialist at Mayo. He had studied my mom’s health history very thoroughly and confirmed that we are on the right track wrt her cancer treatment plan. That said, the gap in our understanding continues to be “lesions” in my mom’s liver which are too small to biopsy, but numerous enough to be considered worthy of chemotherapy.
Thank you for following up and please let me know if you have recommendations for me to follow up on. 🙏🏼
Hi @formayor, first and foremost, I wish you and your wife and family a quick and complete resolution to whatever the issue turns out to be. Yes, we have found CTs to be inconclusive as well. We have found liver MRIs to be more useful in terms of identifying "lesions" that may be in the liver, their size and prominence, and potentially whether they are cancerous or not. Based on my understanding, they can only be determined for cancer if they are large enough to be needle biopsied.
I have initiated the process to have a liver specialist see my mom, per @colleenyoung's advice above (thank you, @colleenyoung!). I will post any findings to this string and hope you find it useful for your wife. In the meanwhile, please let me know if you have further questions about our journey so far, just to compare notes.
I cannot answer your question about other therapies but I am interested in the answer. Like your mom it was discovered that my wife had cancer in her gallbladder after removing because of gall stones. We were sent to a specialist to have a portion of her liver and other lymph nodes around the gallbladder removed. We were hesitant to move forward and CT scans were “unremarkable” so nothing was found. We are still being pressured to move forward with surgery or doing chemotherapy but are leaning toward doing nothing except monitoring (which has not been proposed as an option).
Hi @formayor, first and foremost, I wish you and your wife and family a quick and complete resolution to whatever the issue turns out to be. Yes, we have found CTs to be inconclusive as well. We have found liver MRIs to be more useful in terms of identifying "lesions" that may be in the liver, their size and prominence, and potentially whether they are cancerous or not. Based on my understanding, they can only be determined for cancer if they are large enough to be needle biopsied.
I have initiated the process to have a liver specialist see my mom, per @colleenyoung's advice above (thank you, @colleenyoung!). I will post any findings to this string and hope you find it useful for your wife. In the meanwhile, please let me know if you have further questions about our journey so far, just to compare notes.
This is good to hear. My wife had her gallbladder removed because of stones and they found the cancer. CT scans show nothing else so we are leaning towards not doing anything else.
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Oh, that's a big trip. Enjoy. Sending good thoughts for your big sister.
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2 ReactionsThank you Colleen and all of you kind people…. Yes she started this past week, so far she is feeling fine, thank you for asking. She’s got lots of local family and friends supporting her… I’ll see her in two months, arrangements made, I’ll stay for 2weeks in April… then plan to return in the fall, after chemo is over, and hopefully we’ll do a road trip from Florida to New York and then up to Toronto, Canada … keeping the faith 🙏🏼❤️
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2 ReactionsHi @heartofgold57, I love your username. This must be so hard for you to be so far from your big sister. It's obvious that she means a lot to you.
It is not unusual to have chemo for several months. Chemotherapy is given over a period of time, like the case with your sister. Different drugs may be given over a period of days or on different days. The week "off" is to give the good cells time to recover. You see, chemotherapy goes throughout the body (systemic), killing cancer cells that may have spread. It also kills or damages the fast-producing cells in our body, like blood cells. Luckily these cells replenish after chemotherapy. But they make take some time to replenish, so during that time she may be fatigued (low red blood cells) or more prone to infection (low white blood cells).
I'm tagging fellow members like @alie @formayor @pgf @dougmcd @waflanders to share their experiences with chemotherapy for gallbladder cancer.
HeartofGold, did she start chemo yet or does she start this week? How is she doing?
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5 ReactionsI recently received a like in a previous post and wanted to give an update to my wife’s (56 years old) current non condition. She had her gallbladder removed end of July last year and cancer found in gallbladder. We recently did another set of CT scans and blood tests (first scans done in September were unremarkable). The scans came back still unremarkable. So far not going forward with additional surgery (open surgery with removal of part of the liver and surrounding lymph nodes) or chemotherapy has been the right decision for us (surgery and/or chemo were what doctors were recommending). I read a research paper that said patients with PT1A cancer (my wife had PT2A) were not better off with additional treatments. I don’t remember all the specifics for PT2A but all except for the 2nd stage were good - away from liver, well differentiated (I think) and relatively small 0.6cm. I recognize that everyone’s situation is different but hope this can help guide you what decisions to make for yourself. Our next CT scans and tests are in 6 months (dr recommend 3 months but wife’s anxiety wanted to extend).
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1 ReactionMy big sister (by choice, not biology) had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder (plus some of her liver)... Diagnosed Stage 3... It's been a couple of months and she still has a drain because she had developed an infection too... She starts chemo the first week of February. for 7 months ( 2 weeks on/ 1 week off). I'm doing what I can, from afar (she is in Florida, I'm in CA) by gathering data to help her / support her as best I can... My first question I have is this -- 7 months of chemo??? Isn't that a very long time for chemo? ... She's been told the chemo is given to slow down the growth/keep it from spreading but there is no cure, remission is not possible. My second question - Are there studies out there for people in stage 3 who decide NOT to do chemo and how long on average someone with stage 3 will live in comparison to someone who does the chemo (how long on average will they live after chemo is completed)?
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1 ReactionHello @hopefull33250, we were able to consult with a GI Oncology specialist at Mayo. He had studied my mom’s health history very thoroughly and confirmed that we are on the right track wrt her cancer treatment plan. That said, the gap in our understanding continues to be “lesions” in my mom’s liver which are too small to biopsy, but numerous enough to be considered worthy of chemotherapy.
Thank you for following up and please let me know if you have recommendations for me to follow up on. 🙏🏼
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2 ReactionsHello @alie
It has been a whole since you last posted about your mother's health issues. Was you able to consult with a Mayo liver specialist?
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2 ReactionsHi @formayor, first and foremost, I wish you and your wife and family a quick and complete resolution to whatever the issue turns out to be. Yes, we have found CTs to be inconclusive as well. We have found liver MRIs to be more useful in terms of identifying "lesions" that may be in the liver, their size and prominence, and potentially whether they are cancerous or not. Based on my understanding, they can only be determined for cancer if they are large enough to be needle biopsied.
I have initiated the process to have a liver specialist see my mom, per @colleenyoung's advice above (thank you, @colleenyoung!). I will post any findings to this string and hope you find it useful for your wife. In the meanwhile, please let me know if you have further questions about our journey so far, just to compare notes.
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3 ReactionsThis is good to hear. My wife had her gallbladder removed because of stones and they found the cancer. CT scans show nothing else so we are leaning towards not doing anything else.
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2 Reactions