Ppc

Hello, havent posted in a while on my mom... She is about to finish up on her chemo. She has two more rounds.. She had her Cat Scan yesterday and was given very good news as well as her blood test showed good news as well. Dont remember the numbers but they were very low. Im so happy for my mom,, but just couldnt pull myself together to share the same excitement. Im not sure that her and my dad know the faith of this cancer. Im not sure the dr., have explained anything to her. Am i wrong for this, for not being happy for her. I mean i am,, but am still sad. Because i know this cancer as soon as you think you are in remission,, it comes back full force. And i read that when you belly starts to fill up with fluid, does this mean its close to the end?? My mom has stage 4 PPC. It was in her liver, stomach  and in spine and lyph nodes. She seems to be wearing thin to me from the chemo.. But still has the perfect attitude, which i guess is all she needs.. Shes great seeing her so strong and still living and doing the things she loves. It just really makes her tired doing these things and then is in bed for a couple days after. Anyway,, thanks for sharing all your stories..

I completely understand your feelings.  Your mother seems to be faring well which is excellent.  If she is feeling well and her spirits are good, I'd suggest you help keep that up.  A good positive attitude goes along way and she needs that to fight this terrible disease!  Knowing how insidious it is, I recommend you keep an eye on her and her progress, physical health and various symptoms to see if she has a relapse.  I've seen many posts on this site where people have been in remission for years so don't lose hope!!

 

On 4/16/2008 twithers wrote:

Hello, havent posted in a while on my mom... She is about to finish up on her chemo. She has two more rounds.. She had her Cat Scan yesterday and was given very good news as well as her blood test showed good news as well. Dont remember the numbers but they were very low. Im so happy for my mom,, but just couldnt pull myself together to share the same excitement. Im not sure that her and my dad know the faith of this cancer. Im not sure the dr., have explained anything to her. Am i wrong for this, for not being happy for her. I mean i am,, but am still sad. Because i know this cancer as soon as you think you are in remission,, it comes back full force. And i read that when you belly starts to fill up with fluid, does this mean its close to the end?? My mom has stage 4 PPC. It was in her liver, stomach  and in spine and lyph nodes. She seems to be wearing thin to me from the chemo.. But still has the perfect attitude, which i guess is all she needs.. Shes great seeing her so strong and still living and doing the things she loves. It just really makes her tired doing these things and then is in bed for a couple days after. Anyway,, thanks for sharing all your stories..

I'm happy that your Mom is doing well.  I know exactly how you feel.  My mom has been done with chemo since Dec.06, and has been in remission.  Recently they found some hot spots in her abdomen and chest area.  But they told her that they won't do any chemo yet..just stay with the tamoxofin she has been on since the end of chemo.I don't even know if she is still considered in remission and don't ask.  She is so happy about no chemo and feels great.  I'm worried though and wonder why they don't do more.  I feel like I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop. But i won't tell her that, she is so positive and just looking to enjoy whatever time she has.  How old is your mother?? Mine is 69  and I can't imagine taking a breath when she is gone. When she was on the chemo it was so hard to see this strong woman become so weak and small.  It took about a month or so after the last treatment for her to really feel like her old self. Now she is busy and doing all of the things she loves...i wish the same for your mom.

 

Hi, wow since 06 huh thats great. I hope her spots now are able to go away again if they consider chemo again. Has she had surgery yet? My mom is 61. Im like you seems like im always waiting for the other shoe to drop as well. And i worked three years in a nursing home so it sorta put that cold sheild over me when it comes to this. Even as my grandmother passed,, i expected the worst.. Scary when you set yourself up this way.. I wish i could just be as happy as she is! She still has tumors 1 inch size in her nodes they are trying to shrink before they do surgery. Everything else has gone down. I would love to keep in touch with you and share our stories and support with each other. God bless you and your mom..

My mom turns 73 tomorrow!  She starts her new chemo drug in 10 days and we are all praying that it works.  Her stomach continues to distend due to the growing fluid and it's making her very uncomfortable and not her usual active, vibrant self.  I agree that it's so hard to see such a strong woman become so weak.  My family and I all can't wait for the new chemo to start and hopefully take effect quickly so she can regain a better comfort level.  The doctor also said he can put in a catheter and drain the fluid to give her comfort, but it will keep coming back unless the chemo works. 

 

On 4/17/2008 twithers wrote:

Hi, wow since 06 huh thats great. I hope her spots now are able to go away again if they consider chemo again. Has she had surgery yet? My mom is 61. Im like you seems like im always waiting for the other shoe to drop as well. And i worked three years in a nursing home so it sorta put that cold sheild over me when it comes to this. Even as my grandmother passed,, i expected the worst.. Scary when you set yourself up this way.. I wish i could just be as happy as she is! She still has tumors 1 inch size in her nodes they are trying to shrink before they do surgery. Everything else has gone down. I would love to keep in touch with you and share our stories and support with each other. God bless you and your mom..

Hi twithers! Haven't been on in awhile...sometimes I like to pretend this isn't happening.. How is your mom doing???  Mine is starting chemo again next week and changing some drugs to hopefully keep her hot spots from growing.. She is still feeling good but is basically out of remission.  I think about you whenever I check out the board  and hope you and mom are doing well

Hi Momof3boys,

 

My mom has one more chemo tomarrow then will do more cat scans and consider surgery. She had a cat scan done about three chemos ago, which are every three weeks and they did see some shrinkage. She was really happy, ~ bless her heart~... So, she is really enemic and was given the medicine to help that. So she is really tired and stuff. So your mom is out of remission huh.. How is she doing? How are you doing? Thanks for dropping in a line! I too dont come on as often as i should.. My two older ones and my two little ones keep me busy...lol.. I  hope you had a good Memorial Day,, we spent out with mom it was nice.. Talk to you later.. God Bless Ya!!!

Well, my mom went and had chemo yesterday, thinking it would it for a while. Well they told her even after surgery she will have to continue chemotherapy. They will only be able to remove the cluster of cysts in her stomach and not be able to touch the other spots which are her liver, nodes and spine. So, to me that dont sound good. Havent really talked to her about it.. So what is yall opinion on this? I would like to hear. I think so far she has had three sets of three rounds of chemo all six hours long.

My mom will finish up the 2nd round of her new chemo drug today.  She is on topotecan now (the 3rd type of chemo for her).  She gets it every day for 5 straight days and then 2 weeks off and then starts again.  Will be for 5-6 rounds.  Today is the last day of her 2nd round.  The first round was tough and she definitely was very fatigued aftewards- required 2 pints of blood and shots of procrit to get her hemoglobin and white blood cells up.  She is feeling much better now and much more energetic.  Great news is that they told her yesterday that he CA 125 is down to 485.  It was at 785 the day she started the first round so this is great news and seems to indicate that this drug is working.

Hi All!

I just found this site and have read the wonderful messages people have left, so I thought I could share and benefit from your experiences.  My name is Maggie, I'm 27 and my Mom was diagnosed with PPC last june of 2007.  She was diagnosed when she was having shortness of breath and was found to have a pleural effusion of 2 liters.  The next few days in the hospital were very scary!  The fluid came back positive for malignancy and we were off from there.  We met with an oncologist and oncologic-gyno.  She underwent  rounds of chemo (Taxol and Carboplatinum), before having surgery to remove a large portion of her omentun and total hysterectomy, then another three rounds. At her time of diagnosis I believe her Ca-125 was in the thousands and currently I am happy to say it is 9.  However on our last 3 month CT she has a mass near her Colon which is borderline on a PET scan, so we go for surgery this monday june 2, to have it removed and sent to test the mass for malignancy and tested against several diff. chemo meds.  Although her CA-125 didn't rise it could still be cancer of a different sort which my god I hope not!

I just thought I'd share my experience with you and get some feed back!  We are also looking into some trials with different types of chemo using heated meds washed into the abdomen. I am also a nurse which actually makes this even more difficult because I feel being in this field robs you of some of your optomism.  I know we can fight it though!

Maggie RN