HIPEC: What's it like?

[girlnextdoor]

Hey you HIPECkers,

I was wondering if you'd tell your story on your HIPEC treatment. What was recovery like? How long? Where did you go? Who was your surgeon?

And how are you doing now?????

Any info would be great.

Lisa

[karin]

Lisa,
I haven't had it but you can see from my signature that my best girl, bobbigirl, had it Oct. 15. We went to Baltimore, Univ of Maryland Medical Center, Dr. Nader Hanna. His program has been going strong for years, now, and he is so wonderful with his patients. The surgery itself can be quite painful (it was for her), I'm sure it depends on extent of disease. Of course she had a PCA pump. She was in the hospital for 8 days total.

Bobbi had 30-40 tumor implants in her peritoneum(it's like the pathologist got tired of counting) which were removed, her colon was again resected because tumor had wrapped around the site of the initial anastamosis, they did have to scrape a good deal of cancer off her small bowel, she had a complete omentectomy, TAH-BSO as well as debulking of large bulky tumors down in the pelvis, and her incision site had to be resected because of new tumor growth there. She had 90minutes of Mitomycin-C in the peritoneum. She had a laparoscopic look-see into her peritoneum this past week-no disease found!! She had CT scan the day before that: absolutely clean(see my post happy dance time 2 days ago). HIPEC works, don't be afraid of seeing a qualified surgeon to discuss this life-saving modality.

Warmest wishes to you and you family. Sending strongest positive thoughts your way.
Luv and hugs, Karin

[karin]

BTW, you can watch the surgery on line:
www.orlive.com/videos.umm.hipec
Karin

[justsing]

You've probably been there already, but there is a site www.hotchemo.com which at one time had a pretty active message board / forum. You may find a lot of first hand stories there.

[jenhopesprays]

Lisa,

I'm a HIPECer for colon cancer primary in December '08. Dr Sugarbaker did my surgery. I live in CA and had an acute situation on my hands when it was clear that HIPEC was the best treatment plan for me. I needed to get the surgery quickly as my tumors were putting pressure on my colon and not allowing me to pass anything. We were planning the trip and I met with Sugarbaker and another surgical oncologist in the one day we had to decide who would do the surgery. Sugarbaker had only had one slot due to a cancellation two days before Christmas and we flew to DC without meeting him in person. This was all within one week of discovering the monster met in my peritoneum.

My husband, my sister who is a surgical nurse practitioner and myself all said that if we were not impressed when we flew to DC we were out of there. We were very impressed. He is an amazing "pushing seventy" as you say and a very vibrant, together and extremely impressive man. I have complete confidence in him and who go to him again in a heartbeat.

In September I had a Pet/ct that showed a recurrence in my peritoneum. Floored and freaked my onc set me up for a MR and was preparing to send me again to see the kind doctor. MR ended up showing a loop in the bowel and just a false alarm. I have every confidence in Sugarbaker and his team.

Having said all of that, I am sure that there are a good many doctors who could also do well by your husband.

I had an 8-9 hour surgery. This included debulking and removing extensive adhesions, tumor removal, scrapping of the peritoneal cavity and another colon resection. I don't have on ostomy. He hooked me back up but did mark before the surgery just in case.

We now have evidence based studies to confirm the efficacy of the numbers that Sugarbaker himself found doing the surgery solo for so long.

Hope this is helpful to you. Please feel free to email me at hipecworks@gmail.com if you wish to speak privately. I am happy to share what I know. Any other questions, please ask away.

Jennifer

[girlnextdoor]

Karin,

Thanks for your BG story. Majorly impressive. I did watch it online a couple of weeks ago. I probably shouldn't have as I know longer think I can ask my husband to go through with it...ugh. It'll have to be something he just decides to do. Maryland may be a good choice for us as we have lots o'family back there.

Thanks,

Lisa

[girlnextdoor]

Thanks, Justsing. Hadn't found that sight yet. I'll be checking it out.

Lisa

[girlnextdoor]

Jen and Scott,

I am so grateful for the help you've offered so far. I'll let you know what happens after we go for get the biopsy and go for a 2nd opinion.

Thanks,

Lisa