What to expect during treatment

My sister just underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her liver bile duct and also a whipple on her pancreas. She recently received her pathology report and met with the surgeon, followed by an oncolologist. The bile duct cancer is a stage III and was found in 4 of the 18 lymph nodes tested. She starts an aggressive chemo/radiation treatment in a few weeks. The chemo that she will be taking is FU5 (I think) and will undergo this treatment along with the radiation for 6 weeks before switching over to another type of chemo. My question is out of concern - what can we expect during the treatment? She had the surgery 5 1/2 weeks ago and has been recovering since before starting the treatment in a few weeks. She is planning on starting back to work next week a week before the treatment starts. We started a family business about one and a hlf years ago and she and my daughter run the shop. My daughter is going on maternity leave soon and out of support for my sister and my daughter, I need to understand if it's realistic that she'll be able to work or not during this time. I love my sister very much but care about her health and want to know if she's being overly optimistic. I want to make sure when she is physically capable, we'll have a business for her to come back to and not run the risk that he will have no one to run the shop if she's too ill during the treatment time. I only want to do the right thing to show my support for her and not have my daughter worrying as well.

 

On 5/11/2009 icare24 wrote:

My sister just underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her liver bile duct and also a whipple on her pancreas. She recently received her pathology report and met with the surgeon, followed by an oncolologist. The bile duct cancer is a stage III and was found in 4 of the 18 lymph nodes tested. She starts an aggressive chemo/radiation treatment in a few weeks. The chemo that she will be taking is FU5 (I think) and will undergo this treatment along with the radiation for 6 weeks before switching over to another type of chemo. My question is out of concern - what can we expect during the treatment? She had the surgery 5 1/2 weeks ago and has been recovering since before starting the treatment in a few weeks. She is planning on starting back to work next week a week before the treatment starts. We started a family business about one and a hlf years ago and she and my daughter run the shop. My daughter is going on maternity leave soon and out of support for my sister and my daughter, I need to understand if it's realistic that she'll be able to work or not during this time. I love my sister very much but care about her health and want to know if she's being overly optimistic. I want to make sure when she is physically capable, we'll have a business for her to come back to and not run the risk that he will have no one to run the shop if she's too ill during the treatment time. I only want to do the right thing to show my support for her and not have my daughter worrying as well.

Hello icare,

Allow me to get right to the point. Your sister sounds like a real strong person...but this cancer can be much stronger. The surgery she went through was serious. The stage is also serious. There are many issues with a whipple procedure. My wife had a similar surgery, but with much less factors that you mentioned. This was in 2003 and I think she's been in and out of the hospital many, many times, plus ER. 

Read some of the previous messages regarding bile duct cancer, plus all the issues relation to Chemo and radiation.

This is very serious business. If I may ask, where is your sister being treated. As you must know by now, there are very, very few medical facilities that will challenge this cancer.

You asked if your sister is being optimistic. Well, in a way staying optimistic and positive is very necessary to challenge this cancer. Your sister will be dealing with a lot of ups and downs for many years. It's very early in the game...Yes between you and I, your sister is being too optimistic with regard to returning to work and believing, she will function as she did before all this surfaced. But it is very important not to put a damper on your sister's attitude...I would tell her to take it easy and get into a watch ans see mode. She will be the first to say things are not going well and she can not meet the requirements of work.

Icare...this cancer is rare and serious. Do some research and you may learn more than you wanted to know. Also ask her doctor's what they think...but be careful, they may just go along with the optimism and let your sister call the shots later.

Take care of yourself especially if you plan to be the full time care-giver, it will not be easy, in fact it will be very demanding.

Sincerely...Leonard from Alamo California   

 

I had much the same treatment beginning in May 2007 at the age of 57. First a whipple, then a round of chemotherapy, a month of daily radiation 5x a week with oral chemotherapy drugs, and then a longer run of chemotherapy.I was done in December. As they will tell you, everyone reacts differently to treatment. The chemotherapy made me feel extremely weak. Fatigue like I'd never known. I scheduled chemo on Thursday after work and then took off on Fridays to recoup. I didn't feel much like eating, but it really is important to do so. I never lost my hair, but it thinned out so much that I wore a wig for about 7 months. In my case, i had surgery at the end of May and slept through June. In July I went into work twice a week, and was back full time in August (radiation in the morning before work. I had lots of support but was a hs principal so it was a high stress job. Be there as much as possible and let let your sister work as much as she can. But watch her carefully. It sounds like she will want to do it all. Be her watchdog. Hang in there. I am blessed with a great sister too. It makes all the difference. Good luck.

On 5/11/2009 icare24 wrote:

My sister just underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her liver bile duct and also a whipple on her pancreas. She recently received her pathology report and met with the surgeon, followed by an oncolologist. The bile duct cancer is a stage III and was found in 4 of the 18 lymph nodes tested. She starts an aggressive chemo/radiation treatment in a few weeks. The chemo that she will be taking is FU5 (I think) and will undergo this treatment along with the radiation for 6 weeks before switching over to another type of chemo. My question is out of concern - what can we expect during the treatment? She had the surgery 5 1/2 weeks ago and has been recovering since before starting the treatment in a few weeks. She is planning on starting back to work next week a week before the treatment starts. We started a family business about one and a hlf years ago and she and my daughter run the shop. My daughter is going on maternity leave soon and out of support for my sister and my daughter, I need to understand if it's realistic that she'll be able to work or not during this time. I love my sister very much but care about her health and want to know if she's being overly optimistic. I want to make sure when she is physically capable, we'll have a business for her to come back to and not run the risk that he will have no one to run the shop if she's too ill during the treatment time. I only want to do the right thing to show my support for her and not have my daughter worrying as well.

I was given Gemzar twice. Both times successful, although the second time it was combined with Tarceva and that has lasted a long time - still works. Your attitude has much to do with your success. Stay off the pity pot; it's unbecoming. Exercize is another tool to use. I ride my bike a lot and I work out in a gym 3 days a week. I look , feel, and carry myself better. I am healthy with a few holes.