On 7/13/2007 Bear man wrote:
My wife was diagnosed with primary peritoneal cancer on June 1. She has had the debulking surgury where they removed 98% of the tumor and has started her first chemo series. Before she had the chemo she was retaining a lot of fluid. Three litres from her abdomen and twice have had 21/2 litre removed from around her lungs. She has a stage 4 cancer.Since her first chemo the fluid has stoped accumulating. Our Dr. has told us this type of cancer responds well to chemo but seems to always come back. I am interested in any information others might share with us. She seems improved after the first chemo but she is still weak and very tired. Will this get better with more treatments ? We appreciate any feedback we might recieve. Bearman
Dear Bearman,
I am so sorry to hear about your wife and what she has been through. I just joined this message board and I am sorry I did not learn about it earlier. My mom, 76 yrs, was diagnosed with stage 3c primary peritoneal cancer June 1, 2007. She had surgery immediately and had the following removed(after having 2 liters of ascites removed)...full hysterectomy, it went to her appendix-removed, hit her omentum-removed and then she was left with cancer on top of(peritoneal layer) her colon. Her CA125 was 4025 before surgery and after surgery 2012. She has since had 8 treatments of chemo. This of course leaves you week and constipated and my mom has neuropathy as well in her feet and legs. Her legs will be weak for a while and it will take a lot of good eating to keep her strong as well as positive thinking. It is amazing what the mind can do. My mom is now in remmission and her ca125 is at 8. She sees her doc every 6 weeks to get her blood test for her ca125 number. My mom beat this and she was diagnosed at stage 3c. Although this type of cancer tends to come back to a large degree, your wife can still have many years ahead. Once you are staged originally at stage 3c your cancer remains at that level. Lots of fruits and veggies to keep her strong and no processed foods. I am sure by now that you know that she will go through bouts of anger and memory loss, but that shall pass. As you probably already know this is a rare cancer---1 in 70 women get it. There are too many people getting cancer these days. Too many unknowns in our food, milk, soda ETC! Make sure your wife drinks pleanty of water after she is in remission because this will help flush all the medicines out. Keep a good eye on her and if she wants to do something that made her happy before like going out to dinner, etc. take her out,make life as normal as possible for her. She has excepted this by now and she probable just wants to feel normal(that is what my mom is going through now). The websites on this cancer are very helpful so read on. Knowledge is power and I pray for your wife and you as well. Take Care...