My boyfriend of 4 years was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma in October of '06. He was 29 years old at the time. He just had his 30th birthday and out of the hospital.
The first hospital we were at basically told us that it was inoperable and gave him a huge bag of pain medication and advised him that "this will keep you comfortable for the little bit of time you have left here." We refused to accept this and continued to pray to the LORD that he would help us. I did my research and we were referred to Nicholas Nissen, M.D., a liver specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical center. He reviewed the CT scans, MRI's and Cholangiograms. He advised us that it looked like he might be able to do the surgery and two weeks after our first consultation he was scheduled for surgery.
On January 5, 2007, he went into surgery. The doctor did advise us that there was a chance that this surgery would be inconclusive which means that he opened him up and realized there was nothing he could do for him. After 16 hours of surgery, the doctor came out and advised us that this was the longest surgery he ever performed but could not give up on him. He removed the bile duct and a little over 70% of the liver. He said that as far as he could tell he removed all of the cancer which had taken over his whole left side of the liver and was working on the right. The rest was going to be up to Chucks who I LOVE so much and is a fighter. His life had just started after many struggles, he graduated from Cal State University and got his teaching credential. He didn't even get a chance to get a contract before he was diagnosed.
His 6 year old daughter stayed at the hospital the whole time insisting she would not leave until she knew her daddy was out of surgery. I stayed that night with him and the next day he was fine. He was talking and calling his friends telling them that he was going to make it. That night on January 6, 2007, he was hit with a blood infection that knocked him down, his kidneys started to fail and they advised us to be prepared for the worst. He then developed an infection in the stomach muscle and had his second surgery to remove all the infected tissue. It seemed like he was not going to pull through but the doctor never gave up hope. Finally, we started to see a turn around and after 17 days in the ICU, we were transferred to a regular room. Shortly after that, he developed liquid in his right lung which brought on the 3rd surgical procedure to remove the liquid. Shortly after, he started throwing up blood, a vessel in his stomach had burst and he insists he felt himself fading away. The gastro-interologist moved quickly and after 3 hours which is a long time he found the source of the bleeding and cotorized the vessel.
86 days after surgery, he was released from the hospital. After everything, it is a MIRACLE that he made it through. All of the scans so far has been clear and we only returned to the hospital once for 4 days for a minor infection. We returned to his doctor on May 14, 2007 and all of his blood work is now normal and his liver has regenerated to a healthy size.
Sorry for the long message but I thought that everyone who feels like giving hope and trust me, I know what that feels like. I still cry everyday and thank GOD and pray that his cancer does not come back. We know GOD has brought us through so much.
For all of the caregiver, wifes, husbands, brothers, sisters, moms, dads. Dont forget about yourselves, Pray for strength. GOD is always around. We have made it through everything with myself working full time, and him receiving very little from disability. His bills being more than I make in a month with schools loans and credit cards and rent. I almost thought we would not be able to make it financially, but somehow we are. I pray every day and every spare moment. GOD has brought us through so much. This cancer is terrible, but GOD is LOVE and he is good.
Thanks for reading,
Christina