RocknIraqVet

Sorry if I'm in the wrong spot...  I am active on the gallbladder cancer message board.  A friend from there told me about this thread so I wanted to come over here and say Hi.

I am in a similar situation to what y'all are contending with.  I am an Iraq Veteran with gallbladder cancer.  I have a claim in for service connection and have the DAV as an advocate.  My oncologist believes that environmental exposures contributed to me getting this rare form of cancer, which is even rarer in a person my age, according to the Doc.  I served with the National Guard in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2004 during OIF.

Sending light and hope.  Hoping for the best!

On Mar 11, 2013 9:22 PM lucynz wrote:

Hi everyone,

I had the 2nd CT scan on the 5th, and the results were good in that there were no changes from the previous one in february some 3 weeks previously. So I'm taking it that the OP will proceed now.

cheers Lucy

Great news!

On Feb 22, 2013 6:07 PM RocknIraqVet wrote:

On Feb 20, 2013 7:45 PM lucynz wrote:

I've just looked this up and it is something I sort of knew about, I've bought a juicer, and intend to make green drinks with it, because of the gastric bypass I now have absorption problems and have to take vitamin and mineral supplements, I also have restriction on how much I can ingest, so to me the work around is to consume green drinks whenever I can. I will extend that to incorporate organic produce now. Thanks Libby

I had resection surgery November 9th, 2012, eight weeks after an incidental discovery of stage 2 GBC, after a laparoscopic cholesystectomy.  Two months after the resection I started chemo.  I'm doing single agent gemcitabine for six months.  I'm seven weeks into that.

Me and my girlfreind drink about three glasses of juice each day.  One wheatgrass each day, and two more green or carrot drinks.  We cut out sugar and processed food to a large degree too.  We believe there is definitely a health benefit...  We've had a very nasty flu season here, and so far, niether one of us has gotten sick with the flu.  We're trying to do things (like juicing) to support what the Doctors are doing.

I take back what I said about not getting the flu...  Just came down with a nasty cold.  Yuck.  (I'm on my eight week of gemcitabine, have had infusions seven out of eight weeks.)

On Feb 24, 2013 7:05 PM lucynz wrote:

Thankyou Maudsie and Rick,

 from the surgeons letter I understand they will be using chemo/radiation adjuvant therapy post op, depending on what they find of course, they are assuming there will be spread, but I may be fortunate. I won't get to meet with an oncologist until the operation has been done.

thankyou for being there :)

Hi Maudsie!  Hi Lucy!

I didn't speak to an Oncologist till after my resection surgery.  I did a lot of homework educating myself about this disease during my the initial days of recovery from surgery.  By the time I was well enough to travel to Doctors appts I felt I was prepared to discuss the options.

On Feb 24, 2013 2:57 AM lucynz wrote:

Hi Rick,

Thankyou for sharing your story, it sounds like you are in the ideal situation ( for anyone with GBC that is)

My tumour was poorly differentiated, which is not good, and the surgeon was pretty convinced there would be liver and nodal involvement, I praying that won't be the case. I have to have another CT scan before the surgery will definately go ahead, I hope that it shows up clear. There won't be the slightest opportunity for me to eat too much as I have had a gastric bypass, I'm likely to lose a heap of weight after this next surgery I would imagine, I just hope I can eat enough to heal adequately.

How are you finding the chemo, have you got any adverse effects from it, why do you need to have it for so long, seeing as your cancer hadn't spread?

cheers Lucy

Hi Lucy

I do consider myself very fortunate.  I almost canceled the gallbladder removal surgery because I thought I might have been over-reacting to the symptoms (I only ever had one gallbladder attack).  Turned  out to be a very fortuitous  move, in light of the fact it turned out I had cancer. 

I'm hoping you get the best possible outcome too!

Regarding chemo, I believe it's for a longer stretch, since I'm not doing radiation. 

I have to tell you- I received WILDLY differing opinions from doctors.  I decided with my Oncologist to follow the NCCN Guidelines for adjuvant therapy, to "consider chemo/radiation, or flouropyrimadine or gemcitabine chemotherapy"...  Our reasoning follows that the potential benefit, of helping prevent a recurrance, may outweigh the risk of treatment with gemcitabine chemo.  With radiation we weren't convinced the benefit outweighed the risk of damage to good tissue, especially since there was no eveidence of spread.  No matter how you slice it, it's a gamble.  But at least I know I did my homework.  :)

On Feb 23, 2013 9:52 PM lucynz wrote:

Thankyou for sharing your story, I'm keen to follow your progress, how was your recovery from the resection?, I'm pretty nervous about having the OP, partly because of the pain and the recovery given I'm already weakend by the gallbladder removal and the gastric bypass, but mainly because once they have done the OP then I'll know the extent of the spread and there will be no " ignorance is bliss" left for me.

Did you have liver/lymph/bile duct involvement and what description was your primary tumour eg moderately/well poorly differentiated etc

cheers Lucy

Hi Lucy

Very sorry you're having to go thru this.  Glad your here looking for support.  I found some good support thru this message board.  I'm happy to share my story especially if it helps somebody else.

I had the re-section Nov 9th, eight weeks after the laparoscopic cholesystectomy.  They did not find liver or node involvement.  So I am staged T2N0M0.  The tumor was well-differentiated.

I'm about 15 weeks out from the re-section.  My belly is still pretty tender (still a little sore from the first surgery too).  It's mostly numb below the re-section incision scar.  I did end up with a little hernia during recovery.  (They'll warn you to be very careful lifting things, afterwards).  I was in the hospital for a week.  When I got home I started going for daily walks.  Very short walks at first but I increased them everyday.  About two months out from the surgery I started riding my bike everyday.  That excercise made the hernia symptoms subside to a large degree (yay!).  Another thing about this surgery I noticed is if I eat too much now, it's more apparent to me, than it was before.  I lost 25 lbs during this process.

The surgery wasn't a "walk in the park".  But getting it done is a good thing.

Best regards

Rick

On Feb 20, 2013 7:45 PM lucynz wrote:

I've just looked this up and it is something I sort of knew about, I've bought a juicer, and intend to make green drinks with it, because of the gastric bypass I now have absorption problems and have to take vitamin and mineral supplements, I also have restriction on how much I can ingest, so to me the work around is to consume green drinks whenever I can. I will extend that to incorporate organic produce now. Thanks Libby

I had resection surgery November 9th, 2012, eight weeks after an incidental discovery of stage 2 GBC, after a laparoscopic cholesystectomy.  Two months after the resection I started chemo.  I'm doing single agent gemcitabine for six months.  I'm seven weeks into that.

Me and my girlfreind drink about three glasses of juice each day.  One wheatgrass each day, and two more green or carrot drinks.  We cut out sugar and processed food to a large degree too.  We believe there is definitely a health benefit...  We've had a very nasty flu season here, and so far, niether one of us has gotten sick with the flu.  We're trying to do things (like juicing) to support what the Doctors are doing.

I am Stage 2.  So I don't have first hand experience with what y'all are contending with.  But I have spent a lot of time looking for information about GBC...  I read your posting and thought about an article sent to me by another survivor.  Here is a story about a woman who is fighting stage IV GBC.  If it was me, I'd check with Stanford, as referenced in this article (attached below), or Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  I have studied many articles on Pub-Med written by docs at MSKCC, and they seem to know a lot about this disease.  Best Regards.

http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-11-201

Hi Maudsie!

Good to hear from you! 

I am considering a port.  I can see how a port would help.  I have a bump on my hand from where the IV was on Monday.

I'm getting Zofran and Decadron for the nausea.  I was pretty amped up Monday night.  They said that might happen.  The next two days I had the 'flu like' symptoms.  Yesterday I got pretty tired.  Still feeling it.

The chemo schedule is once a week for three weeks, then one week off, for six months.

I'm still recovering from the surgery but doing everything I can to support healing.  Going for walks daily, eating healthy, etc...  Also paying close attention to all the instructions from the oncology doctor and nurses.