Thoughts and prayers requested

[Florinc Florin]

This was hard to read. Im very sorry and I hope God will somehow help your wife and you get over this.
A friend of mine's father, an old person, was diagnosed with cancer and given a few months to live. My friend started to prepare for the funeral, burial place. People came to see him for the last time and say goodbye. That was 5 years ago... He still lives to this day, and many of those people that visited him are no longer with us.
So dont give up hope!
Wish you all the best!

 

[LogGrad98]

This was hard to read. Im very sorry and I hope God will somehow help your wife and you get over this.
A friend of mine's father, an old person, was diagnosed with cancer and given a few months to live. My friend started to prepare for the funeral, burial place. People came to see him for the last time and say goodbye. That was 5 years ago... He still lives to this day, and many of those people that visited him are no longer with us.
So dont give up hope!
Wish you all the best!

Thank you.

 

[LogGrad98]

She is recovering well from the surgery, and we finally met with the oncologist. First step, implant a portacath for easier access for chemo. If you do not know what that is, then #1 consider yourself lucky and #2, this is a portacath:

NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms provides easy-to-understand definitions for words and phrases related to cancer and medicine.

www.cancer.gov

It is embedded in the chest on the upper right completely under the skin, and it has a catheter inserted into a major vein, so as to ease the chemo's impact on the veins when receiving chemo. I had a few rounds of chemo sans port and it "burned" a few of my veins so they became scarred and hard and closed off, so the smaller veins do not handle the harsh chemo drugs very well. Anyway, that is the next step.

Next, we also received her official diagnosis: serus carcinoma, stage 3. That is the most common type of ovarian cancer. There are 3, generally, and the serus one is the most aggressive, or "high grade" cancer, yet it is also the one that tends to respond the best to chemo. So with that she will be receiving 2 chemo drugs and 1 support treatment:

• Carboplatin (a platinum-based alkylating chemo - damages DNA of cells so they cannot divide, cousin of one I received called cisplatin)
• Taxol (disrupts cell division)
• Bevacizumab (an antibody that blocks a specific protein used to repair damaged cells, helps keep the cancer from regenerating itself and helps reduce recurrence)

The treatments are every 3 weeks and they said they should take about 4-5 hours to deliver each time. My wife is scared to death of the chemo because she saw mine, but mine was extra severe, as the 4 chemo drugs I had were among the worst for side effects, while hers will actually be pretty moderate, so says the doctor. But I had a doctor tell me mine shouldn't cause nausea or vomiting until we found out that was the primary side effect, and I can tell you that anti-nausea medication only gets you so far. But we are hopeful hers will be much more manageable.

The prognosis is still pretty good, the doctor said he had no qualms saying we can get her to remission, the bigger risk is in recurrence. He also said the chances of recurrence, generally, once in remission, are about 10-15%, which is pretty decent odds. To help keep the cancer at bay, they will do a regimen of bevacizumab every 3 weeks for 2 years after her primary treatments and surgeries are complete.

 

[NAOS_pt2]

She is recovering well from the surgery, and we finally met with the oncologist. First step, implant a portacath for easier access for chemo. If you do not know what that is, then #1 consider yourself lucky and #2, this is a portacath:

NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms provides easy-to-understand definitions for words and phrases related to cancer and medicine.

www.cancer.gov

It is embedded in the chest on the upper right completely under the skin, and it has a catheter inserted into a major vein, so as to ease the chemo's impact on the veins when receiving chemo. I had a few rounds of chemo sans port and it "burned" a few of my veins so they became scarred and hard and closed off, so the smaller veins do not handle the harsh chemo drugs very well. Anyway, that is the next step.

Next, we also received her official diagnosis: serus carcinoma, stage 3. That is the most common type of ovarian cancer. There are 3, generally, and the serus one is the most aggressive, or "high grade" cancer, yet it is also the one that tends to respond the best to chemo. So with that she will be receiving 2 chemo drugs and 1 support treatment:

• Carboplatin (a platinum-based alkylating chemo - damages DNA of cells so they cannot divide, cousin of one I received called cisplatin)
• Taxol (disrupts cell division)
• Bevacizumab (an antibody that blocks a specific protein used to repair damaged cells, helps keep the cancer from regenerating itself and helps reduce recurrence)

The treatments are every 3 weeks and they said they should take about 4-5 hours to deliver each time. My wife is scared to death of the chemo because she saw mine, but mine was extra severe, as the 4 chemo drugs I had were among the worst for side effects, while hers will actually be pretty moderate, so says the doctor. But I had a doctor tell me mine shouldn't cause nausea or vomiting until we found out that was the primary side effect, and I can tell you that anti-nausea medication only gets you so far. But we are hopeful hers will be much more manageable.

The prognosis is still pretty good, the doctor said he had no qualms saying we can get her to remission, the bigger risk is in recurrence. He also said the chances of recurrence, generally, once in remission, are about 10-15%, which is pretty decent odds. To help keep the cancer at bay, they will do a regimen of bevacizumab every 3 weeks for 2 years after her primary treatments and surgeries are complete.

The difference between stage 3 and stage 4 is pretty huge, right? "Stage 3" were the most hopeful words—to my ears—in this whole thread.

Thinking about you lots, man.

 

[fishonjazz]

She is recovering well from the surgery, and we finally met with the oncologist. First step, implant a portacath for easier access for chemo. If you do not know what that is, then #1 consider yourself lucky and #2, this is a portacath:

NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms provides easy-to-understand definitions for words and phrases related to cancer and medicine.

www.cancer.gov

It is embedded in the chest on the upper right completely under the skin, and it has a catheter inserted into a major vein, so as to ease the chemo's impact on the veins when receiving chemo. I had a few rounds of chemo sans port and it "burned" a few of my veins so they became scarred and hard and closed off, so the smaller veins do not handle the harsh chemo drugs very well. Anyway, that is the next step.

Next, we also received her official diagnosis: serus carcinoma, stage 3. That is the most common type of ovarian cancer. There are 3, generally, and the serus one is the most aggressive, or "high grade" cancer, yet it is also the one that tends to respond the best to chemo. So with that she will be receiving 2 chemo drugs and 1 support treatment:

• Carboplatin (a platinum-based alkylating chemo - damages DNA of cells so they cannot divide, cousin of one I received called cisplatin)
• Taxol (disrupts cell division)
• Bevacizumab (an antibody that blocks a specific protein used to repair damaged cells, helps keep the cancer from regenerating itself and helps reduce recurrence)

The treatments are every 3 weeks and they said they should take about 4-5 hours to deliver each time. My wife is scared to death of the chemo because she saw mine, but mine was extra severe, as the 4 chemo drugs I had were among the worst for side effects, while hers will actually be pretty moderate, so says the doctor. But I had a doctor tell me mine shouldn't cause nausea or vomiting until we found out that was the primary side effect, and I can tell you that anti-nausea medication only gets you so far. But we are hopeful hers will be much more manageable.

The prognosis is still pretty good, the doctor said he had no qualms saying we can get her to remission, the bigger risk is in recurrence. He also said the chances of recurrence, generally, once in remission, are about 10-15%, which is pretty decent odds. To help keep the cancer at bay, they will do a regimen of bevacizumab every 3 weeks for 2 years after her primary treatments and surgeries are complete.

That last paragraph is nice to read.

 

[LogGrad98]

The difference between stage 3 and stage 4 is pretty huge, right? "Stage 3" were the most hopeful words—to my ears—in this whole thread.

Thinking about you lots, man.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. Yes stage 3 is way better than stage 4. Stage 3 means the tumor is sloughing off cells into the abdomen, stage 4 means it has traveled through the bloodstream to the distant organs like the liver or lungs. That's nearly a death sentence, with a 3 year survival rate at something like 12-15%. Stage 3 with the current regimen we are doing has a 3 year survival at something like 70-80%. So we are trying to stay hopeful. But it's tough. I feel like Samwise Gamgee, telling Frodo "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you". That's all I can do.

I might have mentioned this but since my cancer days I've always shaved my head, 28 years now of being bald. I really prefer it. So I can't shave my head in solidarity with her losing her hair. So I'm growing my hair out in solidarity. She absolutely loved that idea. But she has no idea! Oh boy it's it going to look bad! Right now I look like a fat dirty q-tip. Ugh.

 

[LogGrad98]

We are at the oncologist today, first chemo treatment. It's a pretty big center, holds 17 patients and one visitor for each plus the staff so a lot of people milling around. Louder than I expected, I wish they would put in sound-proof paneling or something. But this is way better than going into the hospital for each treatment like mine. They gave her iv Benadryl to start so she just crashed, she has very low tolerance for that kind of stuff in general so in the iv means she's out. So far so good generally. She had surgery on Friday to install her port-a-cath, and that went good. They accessed it pretty easily, better than she expected, and she has just been getting medication for the past couple of hours. The full effect won't really hit for a day or 2, but the doctor said this would be pretty well-tolerated, so we are hopeful. She was getting herself agitated about the chemo over the weekend but so far things are all right. Think I need to just crash too. Nothing else to do really.

 

[LogGrad98]

Well she had a reaction to the taxol, the first chemo drug she got for the day. She spent 2-3 hours getting premeds and fluids and such but when they started the taxol she was more or less immediately hit with abdominal cramping and pretty strong nausea. They are working on her now. It's crazy but as soon as the nurse saw her symptoms they had like a crowd around her to help with it, including the doctor on duty. It isn't anything dangerous necessarily but just somewhat out of the ordinary. You never know how you are going to react to this stuff until you are in the middle of it, unfortunately. Even though I've been through it and know generally what she is going through, it still isn't easy to watch her go through it. I'd take it away if I could.

 

[gandalfe]

I have a good friend who has been through, I believe, 3 rounds of cancer. This is on top of her other health issues. She was diagnosed when she was in her late 20s, they said, "Well, let's do all your blood work." And... she was pregnant, so they had to wait on all the aggressive stuff until she gave birth. Then, a few years later, it came back, they ran the blood again, and... she was pregnant again. Same thing. Finally, the next time, she wasn't pregnant, so they were able to take care of it right away. She has now been cancer-free for... I want to say 11 years?

 

[The Thriller]

Well she had a reaction to the taxol, the first chemo drug she got for the day. She spent 2-3 hours getting premeds and fluids and such but when they started the taxol she means immediately was hit with abdominal cramping and pretty strong nausea. They are working on her now. It's crazy but as soon as the nurse saw her symptoms they had like a crowd around her to help with it, including the doctor on duty. It isn't anything dangerous necessarily but just somewhat out of the ordinary. You never know how you are going to react to this stuff until you are in the middle of it, unfortunately. Even though I've been through it and know generally what she is going through, it still isn't easy to watch her go through it. I'd take it away if I could.

Definitely am hoping and praying for the best. This is such a hard thing to go through. Hopefully all goes well and at the end of this we only have good stories to tell. Experiences like these can make you really appreciate what you have in life. Having said that, it’s such a hard thing to go through and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

 

[LogGrad98]

I have a good friend who has been through, I believe, 3 rounds of cancer. This is on top of her other health issues. She was diagnosed when she was in her late 20s, they said, "Well, let's do all your blood work." And... she was pregnant, so they had to wait on all the aggressive stuff until she gave birth. Then, a few years later, it came back, they ran the blood again, and... she was pregnant again. Same thing. Finally, the next time, she wasn't pregnant, so they were able to take care of it right away. She has now been cancer-free for... I want to say 11 years?

That's wild. Yeah they have to be very careful on what treatment they give when someone is pregnant. Glad to hear she is doing well. But to come back that often is crazy. During my cancer treatment we met a friend of my dad's who had had cancer like 3 times before I met him. He had testicular twice and then something like bladder cancer. Apparently after my treatment, after we lost touch with him, he had cancer another 3 or 4 times before it finally took him out. He died like 6 or 8 years ago but after 6 or 8 bouts. Unbelievable.

 

[Rubashov]

Well she had a reaction to the taxol, the first chemo drug she got for the day. She spent 2-3 hours getting premeds and fluids and such but when they started the taxol she means immediately was hit with abdominal cramping and pretty strong nausea. They are working on her now. It's crazy but as soon as the nurse saw her symptoms they had like a crowd around her to help with it, including the doctor on duty. It isn't anything dangerous necessarily but just somewhat out of the ordinary. You never know how you are going to react to this stuff until you are in the middle of it, unfortunately. Even though I've been through it and know generally what she is going through, it still isn't easy to watch her go through it. I'd take it away if I could.

Those reactions can be nasty, i remember when mum started doing dialysis during her first iron infusion she had a reaction to it. They stopped the infusion and she went back a few days later for the alternative iron infusion, (its more expensive than the generic) the insane bit was that every time she went into hospital for the infusion (At the end we would do it at home) she would have to remind them to check the infusion against allergies.

How's the wife doing generally in terms of positive mindset and stuff mate?

 

[LogGrad98]

Those reactions can be nasty, i remember when mum started doing dialysis during her first iron infusion she had a reaction to it. They stopped the infusion and she went back a few days later for the alternative iron infusion, (its more expensive than the generic) the insane bit was that every time she went into hospital for the infusion (At the end we would do it at home) she would have to remind them to check the infusion against allergies.

How's the wife doing generally in terms of positive mindset and stuff mate?

Glad they got on top of it for your mom. It's sucks watching someone you love go through this stuff. She's doing really well for the most part. She's nervous and occasionally it gets to her a bit but the prognosis has been good and she's been in good spirits. Granted her treatment isn't as harsh, but for her start, she's handling it way better than I did.

 

[Rubashov]

Glad they got on top of it for your mom. It's sucks watching someone you love go through this stuff. She's doing really well for the most part. She's nervous and occasionally it gets to her a bit but the prognosis has been good and she's been in good spirits. Granted her treatment isn't as harsh, but for her start, she's handling it way better than I did.

Being positive makes such a big difference.