Would you like to learn more?

Cholangiocarcinoma is a very complex cancer. I know a lot of you don't know exactly what mom is going through and I thought you might want to learn more. Here is a little bit about Cholangiocarcinoma.

What is Cholangiocarcinoma?

Cholangiocarcinoma (often referred to as bile duct cancer) is a cancerous growth in one of the ducts that carries bile from the liver to the small intestine. Cholangiocarcinoma is rare. It occurs in approximately 2 out of 100,000 people, but rates of cholangiocarcinoma have been rising worldwide over the past several decades. Cancerous tumors of the bile ducts are usually slow-growing and do not spread quickly. However, many of these tumors are already advanced by the time they are found. A cholangiocarcinoma may start anywhere along the bile ducts. These tumors block off the bile ducts and do not allow bile to flow from the liver to the intestine. This is why one of the first symptoms noticed is jaundice. This cancer affects both men and women and most patients are older than 65(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001336/).

Prominent symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma include abnormal liver function tests, abdominal pain, jaundice, weight loss, and sometimes generalized itching, fever, or changes in stool or urine color. The disease is diagnosed through a combination of blood tests, imaging, endoscopy, and sometimes surgical exploration. Known risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma include primary sclerosing cholangitis (an inflammatory disease of the bile ducts), and congenital liver malformations.

Cholangiocarcinoma is considered to be an incurable and rapidly lethal disease unless all of its tumors can be fully resected (cut out surgically). There is no potentially curative treatment except surgery, but unfortunately most patients have advanced and inoperable disease at the time of diagnosis.

For more information, please go to the following links:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholangiocarcinoma/

Back on Chemo

Well in the past few weeks, mom has been waiting for the results of her MRI to show her how well her body has been reacting to the chemotherapy. Last Thursday mom had an appointment with her Doctor to discuss the results and the next steps to defeating this cancer. Her are the results:

There is some good news and some not so good news. First of all, The cancer is not gone.(this is the not so good news) There is still too much cancer to try and remove it all through surgery. The MRI showed that the tumor in the gallbladder is about half the size as it was last fall, the cancer in the bile duct is almost undetectable, and the spots on the liver look just a bit better.

The Doctor discussed the option of radiation, but decided with my parents to just continue chemotherapy because mom has been so successful while maintaining a high quality of life.

Mom will start chemotherapy today and will continue just twice a month for the next four months. After that period they will reevaluate. So back to step one...

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Mom still has a positive attitude and was very happy with the results of the MRI. She is ready to get back at it and defeat this cancer.

Thanks again for all your thoughts, prayers, cards, notes, gifts and many more signs of love that has encouraged mom to keep giving her all. She couldn't do it without all of you!!

I'll keep you posted on any new information...

February 7th 2011

Well right now mom is sitting at the hospital getting her second to last chemo treatment. Mom's last treatment is on Valentines Day and is getting excited and nervous for what's to come. After chemo is over, I believe the doctors will run all the tests and see where she is at the first week of March. The following week, the Doctors will bring in the family to give us the results of the tests and what the options are at that point. There are many different paths that they could take at that point. They could start chemo again, give mom a break from everything, start radiation, or even surgery. As for mom, she seems to be doing really well. She is happy and has a great attitude. Thanks for all your support. You really do play a key role in helping mom get through this difficult time. I will let you all know what the Doctor's decide to do next. Until next time...

Sorry It's Been So LONG!

I don't even know where to start... I'll first start by apologizing. The holidays were very busy, but that is a lame excuse. I'll try to be better and update on a regular basis. Well mom is doing pretty good. Not much has happened over the last month, so it's been hard to find something to write about. We realized that mom had been sick mainly because she wasn't getting enough fluid. The Doctor's suggested that we give fluid through Mom's port three times a week at home. Andrea and I have been taking care of hooking up the fluids and taking them out. It takes about 2 hours each day. Early in December, the Doctors took Mom's bile bag off and put a cap on the tube to see if the bile would run through the bile tubes and function normally. So far it has and mom hasn't needed to use the bag. The Doctor's said that this is probably a good sign that the tumors are shrinking and the Chemo is working effectively. Mom is very happy and optimistic that she will get some good news in the upcoming months. Mom has one more cycle of chemotherapy and then they will run the tests to see where she''s at. That should happen in February sometime. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers over the holidays. Mom had a great Christmas and we had a wonderful time together as a family. Doctor's still encourage Mom to avoid being around people in this flu season, but she loves all your notes and thoughts. Thanks for all your support and patients. I'll try to be better at updating the blog. Hopefully at least once a week. Thanks for your support...

November 15th 2010

Today mom started the second cycle of chemotherapy. Everything went well and mom is back at home trying to regain her energy. Mom had an appointment with Dr. Litton at 11 this morning. Dr. Litton talked to her about capping the bile tube at the end of this chemo cycle to see if the bile is draining effectively through the bile duct.

Dr. Litton seems to think that the chemotherapy has been shrinking the tumors in the bile duct and the bile is draining correctly because recently mom hasn't been having bile drain into her bag. We are hoping that this is true and the tumors are shrinking, but we won't know for a little while longer.

After she met with Dr. Litton, she received the chemo treatment and returned home around 5 PM. She has been resting and has been feeling much better than the past few weeks. We are happy about how mom is feeling. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.

This Past Weekend

On Monday November 1st, mom took her temperature and it was about 100.5. The doctor told her that anytime it was over 100.4 she needed to call him immediately. Dad called Doctor Litton and he had her start on a antibiotic immediately. Mom thought the fever was gone, but it was just being masked by the Lora tab she was taking for pain. The next few days mom was gradually getting worse, but was managing ok.

On Friday around 6 PM, mom took her temperature and it was around 101.6. Dad called Doctor Litton and he told her to go to the emergency room immediately. When she got there they took her blood pressure and it was 74/49. That is really low and the doctors were very concerned. They immediately started antibiotics and fluid intravenously. They were concerned there was an infection in mom's body and wanted to get it resolved before they sent her home. Mom was released on Monday around 1 PM.

She is doing much better now. She was scheduled for Chemotherapy on Monday, but the doctor wanted her to fully recover before they gave her another treatment. She is scheduled for her next treatment on Monday the 15th.

Right now mom has been struggling with her immune system and will not be able to receive visitors for the time being. Hopefully she will start feeling better and will be able to visit with all of you. I'm sure she would love to! Thank you for all your notes, cards, and prayers. Mom really appreciates all of the love that has been sent.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween! Mom has been feeling pretty well and we got to spend some time all together as a family. We even got mom carving pumpkins. It was also fun to see all the babies dressed in their Halloween costumes. Maybe we can get mom to dress up next year!