Liver trouble

I was able to visit with an interventional radiologist - the kind of doctor who does the liver procedure I spoke about last blog posting. After considerable discussion, he felt that it would not extend my life with good quality so that idea has been set aside for the time being. We can revisit it at a later date if need be. This is a relief to me in some ways but it also means that nothing will be done for the liver. The doctor was reluctant to give any kind of prognosis so we're back to taking one day at a time. It's pretty obvious that I need a miracle. The good news is that in spite of extreme fatigue, I'm not in any pain.

CT scan results

We got the results of my latest CT scans which showed "mixed results". Most things showed improvement - the tumors in the lung had shrunk along with the one in my breast. That's the good news. The bad news is that the liver has developed more tumors. The doctor is talking about doing a procedure involving injecting radioactive grains into the liver which hopefully would kill the tumors without killing healthy tissue. I've read about it on the Internet and it sounds scary to me. Of course, if I don't do it, the results could be scary as well. In the meantime, I'm still taking chemo while weighing what to do next.


For those of you who like detail, check out
http://www.hpbcancer.co.uk/patients/sirtex-liver-cancer-treatment/

Hanging in there

I'm getting complaints about not keeping my blog updated. Shame on me. I'll try to do better.

Since I last wrote, I've been feeling better in general. The nausea was a bugger to get under control but at last, with 4 different anti-nausea meds spread out over the day, I think things are finally looking up. The dry heaves were such a problem that in desperation, I actually visited a hypnotist twice and he made a CD of our sessions so I can listen back to them when needed. I'm still not sure what I think of hypnotism but I did like the nice British man I visited. He came highly recommended.

I was also put on a very small amount of steroids which must be helping too. Walt says to say I can bench press 300# now. The nurse practitioner explained that the kind of steroids they use in sports are hormone based and not the same as I'm taking. So there go my biceps.

I continue to have fatigue from chemo but with a nap during the day, I manage to get through. Yesterday I had a CT scan which involves drinking 2 tall glasses of barium spaced 30 minutes apart. You must be fasting during this time so it makes it all the harder to get and keep the barium down. It's a thick chalky mixture which I hope you never have the need for. I did manage to keep it down in spite of coming close to losing it. We should get the results from the tests on Monday or Tuesday. They will show whether or not the chemo is working and will help decide what to do next.