Kristinaako

I just read about Jim's passing from Carm. My condolences to you, your friends and family. May the memories of happier time help heal and comfort you.

Kristinaako, my sympathy, hugs and prayers to you. May you always feel his presence encouraging you and loving you.
Stay on with us.

I just read about Jim's passing from Carm. My condolences to you, your friends and family. May the memories of happier time help heal and comfort you.

Oh boy. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I wonder if they will consider a biliary bypass of some kind, or whether they just can't do anything for that? I guess it depends on where it is.

Hi Kristinaako. Dad has not yet had jaundice. However, I have read quite a bit about it. It's something I am expecting at some point. When you start to get jaundice and itching, it means there is involvement with the bile ducts in your liver. The tumor may have grown, and is pinching off the little ducts that the bile flows through. Bile is what turns your feces brown. So he may also notice stool that's more pale than usual. If they can't do anything about the tumor, sometimes they will recommend placing a stent-- a little tube or wire mesh-- in a bile duct to hold it open and allow bile to flow from the liver, down through the bile ducts, into the small intestine, and on out.

Is your friend still receiving the 5-FU for chemo? How's he doing? Are they giving him any other drugs with it?

I hope the chances for long term survival are good. I am hoping to live a long and useful life. The 5FU wasn't so bad and wearing the pump for 46 hours wasn't a problem. I have recently finished that course of treatment and now have moved on to something quite interesting Chemoembolization. My Oncologist wouldn't consider me as a candidate until I have all of the nodes of the disease controlled but I finally got that accomplished and this past Tuesday had the procedure The simple description of the procedure is that the doctor will put a small incision in my leg to gain access to the carotid artery there. He then will proceed to fish a tubing via my veins and arteries to the tumors in my liver. He will administer chemo drugs directly into the blood supply of the tumors and then put a blocking agent in the artery to keep the drugs in place. The tumors should then die for two reasons... first the chemo agents that are injected and then secondly because of loss of blood flow to the tumors. There are two tumors one in each lobe of my liver but after MRI and CAT scans it is determined that they share the same blood supply. This procedure is only possible with tumors of the liver because the liver has two blood supplies. One is a vein and the other an artery. The vein carries about 75% of the needed blood flow and the artery about 25%. The tumors have attached themselves to the artery which when blocked should leave sufficient blood flow to the liver from the vein in order to preserve the organ. The procedure should take about 90 minutes under general anesthetic and I will be kept in the hospital overnight for observation to be certain the doc hasn't injected into another organ or nicked the wall of one of the blood vessels he used in the process. He claims that the side effects are minimal and might entail feeling a little blah, slight fever, and a few other minor things for a few days. Most of these effects will be caused by the tumors dying inside me and my body reabsorbing them. In all it sounds much like the side effects of chemo treatment.
I hope this course of treatment will help me live longer and stronger. It is really great to be off of chemo for a while and it looks like I will not receive any more for maybe 2 or 3 more months
Stay Strong

I wish I could go! Unfortunately, I have to work. If that changes, I'll let you know!