Rough week

Skip · 03-21-2010, 01:30 PM

Glad this week is over, one of the worst after treatment weeks so far. Monday took wife to the ER, bad headache,
the shooting pains came back with a vengeance. Blood test, cultures and ct of head, all were good! Doc gave morphine for pain and sent us home (5hrs).

Thursday night went to urgent care at advice of nurse. Wife was in extreme pain, side effects of morphine she was stopped up bad. Got prescription for laxative, sent home.

Friday laxative not working went to ER, we were there almost 12 hrs, more blood work and x-ray of midsection.
Doc said he was not going to let her go until things were all cleared out. Gave her go light, you know the stuff you get to clean out the colon before getting scoped, 3 hrs and 4 liters later the stuff worked!

We have come to the conclusion you can’t figure out what’s going to happen from treatment to treatment. She now has a large arsenal of drugs to treat the side effects of the chemo and the drugs used to treat the side effects, crazy. What next??

We are doing everything the doctors tell her to do and things still go bad. What are we doing wrong? Is this how the rest of her live is going to be like? When can life start being life again?

On a good note her CA 27-29 markers are down from over 800 before first treatment to 198 after her 2od treatment. The CT scan of her head was clear and clean.

On the 31st she gets another CT scan with contrast of her mid section and in April a Mugga test. Hope all goes well!

All that’s left for me to say is;
Cancer sucks!!

Lien · 03-21-2010, 02:02 PM

Skip, you are right, cancer sux big time. However, I personally know of several women who beat liver mets back for years and years. One of them has been NED (no evidence of disease) for 14 years. There is hope, and that's why you need to hang in there.

We are all virtually holding your hands through this. I think you should talk to her onc about the side effects. Perhaps there's something that can be done, like changing the chemo dose or frequency.

Hugs

Jacqueline

PS> Keep us posted, please!

mmoons · 03-21-2010, 05:42 PM

Thank goodness for the clean scan. I wish I could say something to help, Skip. Please know that we are all here to support you. You are not doing anything wrong...you are both just doing your best. It seems crazy when the things that are supposed to make you feel better make you worse! Augh...! I am so sorry. How hard for you to see her struggling. She is lucky to have you. Keep telling her about all the successes with liver mets. There are some amazing treatments.

Maureen

chrisy · 03-21-2010, 07:54 PM

Hi Skip,

Sorry to hear your wife is having such a hard time with treatment. You're right, cancer sucks and not only that, sometimes cancer treatment sucks. I think with liver involvement they like to hit it hard with the "tried and true" therapies (at least that was the case for me), because they are proven - although they are also more toxic.

You are not doing anything wrong - you are doing your best, you just need to keep working with the doctors to get control over the side effects. I hope you can get past the drugs for the side effects of the drug side effects roller coaster soon.

You might pick up the book "beating cancer with nutrition" by Patrick Quillen. It is a pretty good resource for nutritional approaches to symptom management for cancer and treatment side effects.

As for the rest of the questions, here's the thing. You just don't know! I'd venture a guess that once your wife completes chemo, life will be VERY different, and that she, and you, will have times where life is normal - where she will feel well physically and you will be able to get back into your lives. You will learn to live with the uncertainty and realities of living with cancer - it's hard to believe, but it is true. And note, I said LIVING with cancer.

We (dealing with Stage IV cancer) carry the extra burden of facing our mortality. "Normal" people have the luxury of just not thinking about it. That said, I think we also have a greater appreciation for the miracle of life, and living.

For now, focus on what you DO know - the chemo seems to be working! That is good news indeed, and I hope this is clearly seen on her upcoming scans.

Take care, do not lose heart.
chris