[grandma2]

eric, i'm sorry to hear of caryn's problems. i have numerous nodes with mets in abdominal area. several are clumped together and pressing on my pancreas, liver and bile duct. in nov i was in hosp. for 5 days with acute pancreatitis. at first we thought it was xeloda and that may have had a part in it, but the nodes are right against the mouth of the pancreas. pain never really went away and new years day back in hospital for a week. however pan. enyzmes were normal but bilirubin and liver enyzmes sky high. nodes are also pressing on bile duct causing an obstruction and jaundice. they had to put 2 stents in to keep bile duct open. still in constant pain and been on percocet for weeks now. monday will start rads to shrink this area and then chemo to hopefully kill it off. radiologist told me that to remove it completely with rads would require too high a dose and would damage organs around it. i thought it was unusual to have mets in this area from breast but i'm finding it's more common than i thought. nothing so far in liver and hope it stays that way. very down that i have to do the rad thing again for 5-7 weeks and them chemo again especially losing hair a 2nd time. may sound stupid but that's bothering me something awful. oh i forgot, at first they thought there was a mass in pancreas but it was highly inflammed due to the clump of nodes. i have more nodes in there but this one area is causing the problems. onc ran pancreas marker and that was normal. i'm sure caryn's will be also. i'll keep her in my prayers and please lets compare notes in the coming weeks. good luck.