My Mother Was Just Diagnosed

She's 51 and just got the diagnosis that she has gallbladder cancer and that it's spread to her liver and colon. They're doing a biopsy in two weeks. I can't believe we have to wait that long but the doctor is on vacation.

I wasn't too worried about it until I started reading these posts. I was thinking that they could just cut out the cancer and all would be fine... It looks a little more complicated than that. I'm 31 and my wife is 30, we are working on having our first child and I hadn't even thought about the possibility of my son or daughter(s) not knowing their grandmother.

How long can someone live with the disease? Can she live for another 30-40 years?

I am so sorry to hear of your mother's diagnosis.  By now, you must have biopsy results, and a sense of how serious gallbladder cancer is.  I was diagnosed almost 9 months ago, and was asymptomatic for most of the time, following surgery to remove my diseased gallbladder and do a bypass for my blocked bile duct.   Some folks progress very quickly to the later stages of the disease.

 I know of one man from another discussion board, who has cholangiocarcinoma, which could be GBC, or bile duct cancer, and he's at 8 years.  I don't know of anyone who has lived longer.  There are some active discussions on the site, cholangiocarcinoma.org, and if you haven't found the site, it's absolutely worth checking out.

 I have a website about my journey with this disease that you can check out if you are interested.  I try to provide information, links to other sources, and my story as I struggle with the disease.  It's at www - dot - dahlborg - dot - blogspot - com.  (I'm trying to keep this site from deleting the address, so you will have to translate.)

Good luck to you and your mother, and your whole family.  This is not an easy disease to face, and I wish al of you the best.