maxxschiken's Recent CancerCompass Activity
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Post to give those with this particular immediate death sentence prognosis HOPE.
In less than 2 months, my wife will be 2 years post diagnosis and 12 months post stopping all chemotherapy with no evidence of new or progressive metastatic disease and no tumor recurrence. Only treatment was Folfirinox from August 2011 to June 2012. Currently working out at the local fitness center 5 days a week 3 hours per day do...
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Are you looking at clinical trials because the new standards for treating inoperable stage 4 pc is no longer effective? We went to UCSF which is 40 minutes north of where we live and also where the latest in both clinical trials and new standards were discussed and offered. We chose not to begin with a clinical trial and went directly with folfirinox which my wife tolerated and achieved great success to t...
Wednesday at 8:37 AM
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This coming July 2013 will be 2 years post my wife's diagnosis with inoperable stage 4 adenocarcinoma pancreatic cancer with metastisis to her liver at the age of 57. Prior to diagnosis she was physically fit working out at the gym 5 days a week 2-3 hours daily with cardiovascular, strength endurance and weight lift training. She tolerated 10 months/19 sessions of folfirinox chemotherapy without a break a...
May 21 at 8:49 AM
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Where are you located and what are the specifics for the patient? Age? Overall health prior to diagnosis? Any cardiovascular disease prior to diagnosis? Typically any local oncologist in your area here in the U.S. has the capability to manage this stage of PC. If you search all of my contributions here on CancerCompass you will find 2 years worth of posts describing in detail my experience wit...
May 21 at 8:39 AM
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Hi Ammani,
So wonderful to hear the stent provided relief for your Mom and best of all that the surgery was possible to remove the tumor. Once she has fully recovered from the resection, she should be strong enough for the chemotherapy treatments.
Yes, our situation is very different and we had to rely only on the chemotherapy to eradicate the tumor and spots on Annie's liver. We feel very fortunate she...
May 19 at 4:28 PM
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You can call it a miracle, a medical anomaly but the human body is not designed to accept more than 7 or 8 sessions of this line of treatment without adverse effects such as declining white blood cell counts and neuropathy but my wife tolerated 19 session in 10 months of folfirinox without a break with only mild side-effects.
After the first 6 months of folfirinox chemotherapy, my wife's 5cm tumor...
May 14 at 8:18 AM
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maxxschiken has changed their profile photo
May 13 at 12:51 PM
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Are you your husbands primary caregiver? Do you want to understand more about the drugs being used to treat your husbands condition? If so, you should inquire with his oncologist about what he is taking. In fact, you should make a list of everthing he is taking so if in the future he is unable to speak for himself, say for instance if he becomes too ill and has a hospital visit, you can provide the ...
May 10 at 12:29 PM
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My wife never experienced slurred speech during folfirinox. Irinotecan was eliminated during her very first four hour infusion to see how she tolerated the other three drugs and since she did fine, they introduced it on her second treatment and maintained the 4 drugs in the folfirinox coctail for 10 months. Hopefully the slurred speech symptom is only related to how your Dad's tongue feels from these drug...
May 10 at 9:02 AM
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Find a new one or do what my wife did when she was diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 adenocarcinoma with a 5cm tumor on the body of her pancreas and metastisis to her liver in July 2011 when they told her 3-6 months without treatment or IF YOU CAN TOLERATE TREATMENT maybe add another 2-3 months of life THAT's IT...
What exactly did she do? She tolerated 10 months/19 sessions of folfirinox chemotherapy without ...
May 09 at 8:40 AM
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About maxxschiken
Caregiver
Pancreatic Cancer
Cancer Nutrition, Cancer Treatments, Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials and Research, Conventional Treatments, Diet, Emotional Support
Greetings! My name is Jeff, primary caregiver to my wife Annie seen here in the default profile picture taken last month on April 13, 2013. We celebrated a dear friends birthday along with the fact she was almost 2 years post diagnosis with inoperable stage 4 adenocarcinoma pancreatic cancer. Also at the time this photo was captured Annie was now 10 months post the discontinuation of all chemotherapy with stable full liver panels, CA19-9's and CT scans revealing no evidence of new or progressive metastatic disesse and no tumor recurrence. Annie will be 60 years of age this coming December 1, 2013.
A timeline of her journey thus far:
07/2011 - wife at age 57 diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 pc; 5cm tumor/body, two spots on liver, CA19-9=21,000+
08/2011 - begins folfirinox chemotherapy at a rate of one 48hr infusion every other week.
01/2012 - CT: spots on the liver gone, tumor now 4mm, CA19-9 normal at 17.
06/2012 - completed 9.5cycles/19 sessions of treatment. 4mm tumor necrozed/scar tissue with no metabolic activity. ALL CHEMO STOPPED. CTscan reveals No evidence of progressive metastatic disease and no tumor recurrence. All liver panels normal and CA19-9 stable at 35. The only medication taken is Metformin to treat her Type 2 Diabetes.
09/2012 - CT: NED with all liver panels normal and CA19-9 stable at 35.
12/2012 - CT: NED. Runs a 10 kilometer race.
02/2013 - CT: NED with all liver panels normal and CA19-9 stable at 35. Re-instated fitness center membership and now worksout 5x weekly 3 hours daily.
03/2013 - Consultation at UCSF with Dr. Andrew Ko who after being reminded the prognosis he gave us in July 2011 of 3-6 months of life left without treatment said, "you proved us all wrong, you are doing amazingly well, continue to LIVE LIFE."
Our journey can also be found at www.cancerforums.net username: hiyasofsj and I also contribute in the John Hopkins University pancreatic cancer forum.