small bowel cancer

Thank you very much, Lynn, though I heard only negatives from his doctors,I feel charged after reading your message. exceptions are there always, and let us hope we will be in the success percentage. after all God is ultimate, just like how it grew so much without any hint ,he can keep it away,if he wills. still we should look for the human possibilities and put in our effort.

 thank you once again and hoping to here from you often

                                                          thalayur
 

Hi Thalayur,

Glad the info helped.  You are so right that God can heal and while He is doing His work we need to be doing our part to stay positive, have treatment and follow-up testing, pray, and get well.  I'm just now starting on my 3rd year since diagnosis.  There are others on Rare Cancer Alliance who have been longer than me.  I hope treatment isn't too hard on your husband.  From what I hear Whipple surgery can be pretty hard on a person so it's a good sign that your husband has gotten through that.  Remember to take care of yourself, too.  It can be stressful on the caregiver, too.  Keep us posted, take care and God bless.

Lynn 

Dear Lynn,

             Releaved to be in touch with you.very encouraging in my desparate situation i am registering in rare cancer group as well. sorry for my language problem. but I feel basic human mind is communicative than the language!

                                   thalayur
 

Lynn,

Thanks for your reply.  I haven't been checking this particular thread, so I didn't realize that you had posted.

Brian did have surgery...turned out to be a waste of time.  He was first diagnosed in Aug 06.  That surgery removed the cancer.  He underwent the chemo in order to reduce the chance of recurrence.  That was a waste of time, too.  Cancer recurred even faster than it was supposed to if he didn't have the chemo.

The recurrence was first noticed on a PET in Jan 08.  At that time it was 6 mm, and was monitored..not confirmed as cancer.  In Mar it had doubled in size.  At that time endoscopy was ordered.  Nothing found.  Then exploratory surgery was scheduled for May 29.  The surgery found that it was now golf ball size, and attached to the femoral artery.  They couuldn't remove it. 

 July 7th he started a combo chemo/radiation treatment five days a week for five weeks.  The chemo was too strong for his heart.  So, he was taken off of it until they decided what new dose to put him on.  He continued radiation during that time.  Tomorrow (Jul 21) he re-starts the lower dose of chemo.

He is supposed to finish radiation in 3 weeks.  Then they will PET again to see how effective it was.  After that time he is supposed to switch to iv chemo.

Thank you for your reply... What did your 2nd opinion find?

LeeAnne

On 7/20/2008 Sickofitall wrote:

Lynn,

Thanks for your reply.  I haven't been checking this particular thread, so I didn't realize that you had posted.

Brian did have surgery...turned out to be a waste of time.  He was first diagnosed in Aug 06.  That surgery removed the cancer.  He underwent the chemo in order to reduce the chance of recurrence.  That was a waste of time, too.  Cancer recurred even faster than it was supposed to if he didn't have the chemo.

The recurrence was first noticed on a PET in Jan 08.  At that time it was 6 mm, and was monitored..not confirmed as cancer.  In Mar it had doubled in size.  At that time endoscopy was ordered.  Nothing found.  Then exploratory surgery was scheduled for May 29.  The surgery found that it was now golf ball size, and attached to the femoral artery.  They couuldn't remove it. 

 July 7th he started a combo chemo/radiation treatment five days a week for five weeks.  The chemo was too strong for his heart.  So, he was taken off of it until they decided what new dose to put him on.  He continued radiation during that time.  Tomorrow (Jul 21) he re-starts the lower dose of chemo.

He is supposed to finish radiation in 3 weeks.  Then they will PET again to see how effective it was.  After that time he is supposed to switch to iv chemo.

Thank you for your reply... What did your 2nd opinion find?

LeeAnne

LeeAnne,

Sorry for what you and your husband are going through.  It can be so discouraging, but just keep fighting and don't give up.  You never know when the next test might come out clean and clear and you'll then know that they found a treatment combo that is working for him.  Keep thinking of the possibility of the radiation shrinking the tumor and the next chemo finishing it off and killing any stray cells lurking around. 

I had my surgery 4 weeks ago.  It turned out to be a bleeding ulcer in the small bowel.  They removed that section and then scoped the whole small bowel looking for anything suspicious, since my small bowel cancer was 2 year ago.  They assumed it was back.  The surgeon had planned a liver biopsy as well, but didn't do it because the surgery had already taken 6 hours.  Guess he'll do a needle biopsy later if my liver enzymes continue being elevated.  I was lucky that the chemo was effective for me and I hope and pray that they find an effective combination for your husband.

Have I mentioned Rare Cancer Alliance to you?  It has a separate category for small bowel cancer as well as colon cancer.  Please excuse my memory, or lack of it!

Lynn

Lynn,

I did get your message about Rare Cancer Alliance and signed up on Sunday night.  Thanks for that.

 While a bleeding ulcer is not fun, it is good that it was not anything worse than that.  I will continue to pray for your health.

 LeeAnne