My wife remains in remission and on chemo since her Stage IV diagnosis in March of 07. There is ALWAYS hope!
LISA
My 43 year old spouse was diagnosed with Stage IV in March of 07. She initially presented with acute pain at her GI Junction that was relieved with over the counter prilosec and diet modification; however, we were not satisfied that the pain was simply caused by reflux and demanded an endoscopy which identified the stomach cancer. The news got worse as further scans revealed a single tumor in her liver; they were 3cm and 4cm respectively. Wow, moving from Stage I to Stage IV sure did not take long.
She immediately started on ECF (Epirubicin, Cisplatin, and 5FU) and after four rounds (each three weeks long) the tumors were no longer detectable on scans and she was classified as being in remission. After many second (and third and fourth) opinions it was decided not to do surgery in her case and she continued on ECF for another two months. She experienced nausea with these treatment but a drug called Emend worked really well to decrease the symptoms.
Post her initial round of treatments the scans were still clear and we changed her chemo regimen to Oxaliplatin and Xeloda (initially 5,000mg/day but quickly reduced to 4,000mg/day); she continued on this regimen for another 4 months before switching to just 5FU delivered every two week through her port (she was on this for the next 4 months).
After more than a year of chemo, our oncologist suggested a break and to 'see what happens,' however our second and third opinions disagreed and she started again on Xeloda (also known as capecitabine) which she takes orally. Unfortunately about 8 months into her treatments she developed a blood clot on her pancreas and had to start on coumadin - this was not a problem until we switched back to Xeloda which cannot be combined with coumadin so now we inject her daily with a lovenox type drug (this drug cost a pretty penny).
So here we are a year and a half post diagnosis and she remains on chemo with the advice of multiple oncologists (from Dana Farber, Sloan Kettering, Yale New Haven, and Columbia) all suggesting that she basically stay on a chemo treatment for as long as her body can tolerate it.
Through it all she has completed her Master's in early childhood education, received her teachers certificate and started back to work fulltime. She remains in good health, has lost no weight and is motivated to continue the battle. Initially she did have some nausea but a drug called emend took care of that, lost her hair (and has now grown it back and she used a good quality wig which helped her deal with it), lost layers of skin on her feet (this grew back to), lost some sensation in her hands and feet (feeling came back but not to where it was prior to seeking treatment). As important as anything, her attitude has remained strong with a confidence that she can BEAT IT. So far she has. Praying hasn’t hurt her any either.
That is her story so far. She is very lucky as we caught it early and have had access to multiple professional opinions from leading cancer centers. Also, that my mother in law (her mom) is an organizational wiz and we all have color coded binders with every test, every scan, every physician note, and every step of her treatment – this is a MUST HAVE to keep track of it all and be able to present the entire case study to physicians for their opinions (they will only be as good as the information they have to review). There are other success stories on this site. We continue to take it a day at a time. Since August of 07 we have had no signs of the cancer returning and sincerely hope it never does.
I hope this information helps.
Mar 07 Apr 07 Aug 07
Diagnosed Starts ECF Scans Clear
Stage IV Chemo Remains on ECF
Oct 07 Mar 08 Aug 08 Nov 08
Changes to Switches to Back to Still on Xeloda
Oxaliplatin/Xeloda Just 5FU Xeloda Scans Clear
STEVE (aka momwithkids)