mixed mri results

[Milk Tea]

Thank you rp1954 for the links. Good article to study further on maintenance chemo and to share with our oncologist. He has never heard of ADAPT. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I have learned a great deal from your posts.

[Gravelyguy]

Hopie,

You really do need a referral to a good liver surgeon. Too much chemo is not a good thing if there is a chance at surgery.

After being diagnosed stage 4 with liver Mets, I was immediately referred to Mayo Rochester. I did 4 rounds of chemo then surgery then mop up. The chemo can do a lot of damage to the liver making it inoperable.


Praying for your mom,


Dave

[LPL]

Good Luck today Hopie !
My husband did 4 chemo before liver resection and 8 after. The CT-scan after 4 chemo showed that 1 met had shrunk a little and 1 met had grown a little. (I called that ”no change” in my signature). The pathology said the same for both liver mets; that it was very few living cancer cells in the resected liver mets.

[hopie]

My husband is on maintenance chemo because of his extensive liver involvement (12 Mets). Yes all the tumors were out after surgery but his oncologist strongly believes Xeloda plus Avastin will help prevent recurrence in this case for the most critical first two to three years after mop up chemo. My husband manages the side effects ok so he continues on this maintenance.

i'm sorry for confusing everything (maintenance chemo, wife/husband), my mind was half working yesterday. i'm really glad that your husband is able to handle chemo and is cancer-free!

[hopie]

ok, so, i met with the onc. and one big lesson is this: don't text your oncologist about vital things; they're human, they're busy, and are not always able to recall specifics about a patient. she totally confused my mom with someone else. (she was talking as if mom still had her primary tumor in place and had giant mets.)

after we cleared things, we looked at mom's scans together. she thinks one of the 4 lesions lighting up on PET is not a met; she cannot see another one on either MRIs! so while she insisted that this is not her expertise, she did seem to think that not all 4 might be mets after all. i asked her what outcome we would expect so mom can have surgery, she said it's up to the surgeon and asked if we had a surgeon of choice. i gave her the name i had in mind and she works with him all the time so i'm meeting a surgeon tomorrow!!!!

[Pyro]

Yeah, I only text my Onc if everyone else at his office has failed me, I try not to abuse it and so far he’s been fine with it. They probably only give everyone’s case an hour a week depending on the patient. I’d like to think I’m the only patient, but it just isn’t the case.

[hopie]

I’d like to think I’m the only patient, but it just isn’t the case.

this is so true. i've memorized every single detail and i talk as if we're sharing that common ground. so for tomorrow, i'm preparing a fact sheet for the surgeon so we can remain on the same page.

[LPL]

Hopie, Wonderful news about the surgeon you wanted!
Best of luck (again ) tomorrow!

[hopie]

Hopie, Wonderful news about the surgeon you wanted!
Best of luck (again ) tomorrow!

thank you so much! ❤️ here’s to lots of luck to G13D mutants!

[hopie]

surgery scheduled for 29th!!!! mom will get her 5th roubd on monday without avastin! plan is to do resection laparoscopically(?).

...and she has been resectable right from the beginning!

morale of the story: TAKE ACTION! PUSH DOCTORS!

[LPL]

Hurray!! So happy to hear this Hopie
Best wishes that the surgery will go very well.

[hopie]

i might have gotten happy prematurely

i was too focused on notes about the liver and just realized this was also there on the mri report:

"2 solid nodular lesions at the left anterior and bladder junction that might be implants"

does this mean mom has peritoneal tumors now????

...why can't i just be happy this is so unfair

[rp1954]

Congratulations on lining up the surgery. Before surgery is a critical time, a chance to gain extra chances. We did extra things for surgery that had big benefits and extra credit.

If your mom is found with extrahepatic mets, and especially peritoneal mets, surgeons are likely to stop the liver surgery as "futile", without improvements on the patient and/or the surgeons. I disagree with that position on several bases, and so far, we've dodged that bullet, pre-emptively.

A big part of the credit I give to her 1600 mg cimetidine plus addons for CA199 and CSLEX1 positive tissues, which most likely enabled that "weird", huge immune response my wife had before her first surgery that zapped her peritoneal stuff. Part I give to IV vitamin C for Kras mutant cells' characteristics, combined with immune enhancements and other Kras related vitamin science, as well as metronomic oral chemo. We had not yet even reached full swing on alternatives, like adding celecoxib and some of the better immune supplements to UFT.

Other nasty habits that we have, include changing scheduled surgeons and adding interviews for reconnaissance in hostile territory and more detailed information.

[hopie]

i said i wouldn't with vital things, but i did end up texting her onc and her surgeon. onc said she "neither understood nor saw" those lesions. surgeon said he hasn't seen them either but we'll look at the scans more carefully monday. and that he still thinks surgery should be given a shot. so i asked if this means that this wouldn't change our plans. he said "i don't think so, we already know it's a metastatic disease, unless the spread is extensive."

my meeting with the surgeon was great too, he answered all my questions and i had plenty! so even in the worst case scenario, i felt good to know that they're on mom's team.

[hopie]

Congratulations on lining up the surgery. Before surgery is a critical time, a chance to gain extra chances. We did extra things for surgery that had big benefits and extra credit.
.

all these will be my homework for the coming weeks! i know you accomplished a great response and i hope to achieve a similar outcome!