On 6/26/2009
friends4ever wrote:
Hello all,
I have just joined on here. I have been reading the stories and I thought you could help me as well.First of all I wish everyone who is fighting with this enemy a great health and strengh to supporters.
Well mydear friend who is 39 with a lmost 3 year old daughter has just been told that she has a Pancreatic cancer and it has spreaded to liver as well. They have done the Biopsy last wednesday so we are going to get the results on monday from a oncologst. She had a CT scan and some blood tests as well. She is suffering with a abdominal pain whic spreads to her back every 4-5 weeks.... she goes to her local dr's and given paracetemol ... then checked for stomach bacteria then check with endoscopy for ulcer then gallbladder stones and now here we are.She also have the gall bladder stones too. finally they did the CT and told us the sad news.Inthe meantime 10 months has passed :(
Here in UK they said they cant operate the pancreas and they can refer to her to palliative care .This did not gave us any hope at all.It sounds like they are giving up on her already... they also said after a biopsy result they must start to chemo asap.Wellshe will be having a second oppinion after monday from a specialized hospital but my questions are ;
She is originally from Italy.. should she go there ?is there a better treatment there thn UK...?
Can something be done even though it spreaded to Liver?
I am being very positive to her supporting as much as I can. printing survival stories and giving to her.But I am very very sad deep down and can not think of a life without my friend especially cant bear to see her little girl grow up with no mummy :(
What do you recommend support wise or what are the stages etc.
Thanks millions for reading.
Wish you all the best
So sorry your friend and you are having to go through this. I had the same diagnosis in 9/08. In fact, today is 9 months since I got the diagnosis. I'm still functioning and doing well. I still play golf at least twice a week and feel like I can live for quite a while longer.
I think your doctors are wrong. I don't know how your medical insurance works (if that is a concern) but I would see a second or third opinion.
The chemo can work to prolong life. I would be gone by now if it weren't for the chemo. I started on Gemzar and Tarceva which did not work and I had bad side effects. I was switched to 5 FU and Leukovarin and the first scan after that showed shrinkage in all tumors.
If you don't get any results from the first chemo, try another. There are many combinations. Also look for clinical trials. Clinicaltrials.gov is the site we use here and there are many that have multiple locations such as Japan, Germany, etc.
I don't want to give you any false hopes. Pancreatic cancer that has spread to other organs is very serious. The only hope is to prolong life and hope a cure is on the horizon. I've read of some hopeful drugs in trial that may be the answer. But, we just have to keep plugging along and hope that cure is just around the corner.
I don't have any insight into other country's treatments. You may have really good oncologists there. If not, I would look to the US. M. D. Anderson in Houston, TX and John's Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland have great facilities and deal with this beast regularly. There are many others here that have great results.
Best wishes. Hope this is of some help. Don't give up. As one of our great american baseball players said, "It ain't over 'til it's over.