How are people with liver mets doing?
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great news Elderberry!!!! So happy to hear!!
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BevJen - happy to hear all went well. Take it easy, rest, treat yourself with kindness as you reciver
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50s girl - good news on The ECHO! Hope you can stay on this treatment and it keeps working for you!!
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candy - I am not sure what theseterms mean. When you find out can you please share? Praying for you for next MRI and hoping all is stable.
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Hopeandgratitude- I Googled the terms. Still way above my head, but I think they are characteristics of a malignant lesion. The "enhancing lesion" is concerning vascularity and is seen in malignancy. The "diffusion restriction" is concerning movement of water molecules (I think) and is seen in malignancy. And "targetoid lesion" I am unsure about. Though I read something about seen with lobular breast cancer. So, I think, these are medical descriptions saying the lesions seen on my MRI are consistent with my already proven MBC of the liver---- I had a liver biopsy on the 1 tumor at diagnosis to confirm the MBC.
Just wondered if anyone else on here could explain better. Or if their reports sound anything like this.
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Elderberry - so happy for you!
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My microwave ablation and biopsy of liver went well yesterday. The IR noticed some fluid in the lungs, so I had to stay overnight at the hospital. Today morning Xray was clear. So going home soon!
Bevjen I am surprised that my IR has ordered IV tylenol for pain. She said that if the liver enzymes are normal it is okay to take Tylenol.
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S3K5,
First, so glad that you are going home and that the process went smoothly!
Second, I think that different docs have different preferences. My liver enzymes are fine, and in fact, when I had my first ablation in 2019, they didn't give me any pain killers. I alternated between Tylenol and Advil for two weeks, and it worked just fine -- no impact on liver enzymes. This time, I had the wherewithal to ask about pain meds, and they came up with the oxy. I took it all day yesterday after I got home, and last night to sleep, but I've only taken a half tab today and may not take it again until it's time to go to bed. I do remember from the last time that, since I'm a side sleeper, turning over onto my side hurt a good bit and woke me up.
Another example: last time, my ablation was done using CT, as was my first liver biopsy. This time, they used sonogram -- same doc, same hospital. Who knows????
Get some rest! I'm taking my own advice, although I feel pretty good today.
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Pamela23: I am sorry you have to deal with insurance companies. It pains me to see how many of you ladies have to do battle with insurance companies at every turn. I am grateful to be in a country with universal health care. I wish the same for you!
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Moth
Dr called me she scanned over report and I have no tumors and everything else is reduced or stable so good news!
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Moth
Dr called me she scanned over report and I have no tumors and everything else is reduced or stable so good news! I will get more info on Wednesday.
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Fabulous news, Stillhavehope! So many good results on this thread lately!
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S3K5, I am sorry that you to spend the night in the hospital, but it is good that your care team was taking the extra step to make sure you were okay. I am glad that the procedure went well. I hope you take it easy when you get home.
Stillhavehope, WOOHOO for the good scan results.
Hugs and prayers from, Lynne
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S3K5, glad your going home and the procedure went well. Maybe the lung fluid was from the full anesthesia? Nice your team took precautions and kept you overnight. Rest and recover now.
StillHaveHope, I echo Lynne's WOO HOO for good results.
Elderberry, so far, knock on wood, I haven't had anything denied or questioned by insurance, so it is tough to figure the whys and wherefores of U.S. insurance companies.
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Im going to. "BUMP' here....
For those with liver and bone mets...if you have a treatment that works for just liver mets and not bone or vice versa will the MO most likely keep you on the current or no??? Is there a "standard of care" or thing they always do in these cases??
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Nicole, I'm sorry you are in the spot you are in. I hope someone can answer you, did you try the Bone Mets forum too? I'm so newly dx that I don't know much about my bone mets. We have ben concentrating on my liver ones since they are far worse.
Hooray for StillHave Hope!!
Elderberry--my husband left his job in Feb of 25 years that had one of the best insurance coverage program in the US to a Swiss based company where his salary and position catapulted us but the insurance has been a lot of hoops to jump through. Of course when he left his other job, I was more than healthy, or so I thought!!
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hi Nicole. I just asked my MO that question today. As you know, I was diagnosed with Mets to the liver and subsequently had mets to bones/spine. I’m on VERZENIO, stayed on verzenio and they added Faslodex and Xgeva, which seems to taken care of the bone Mets for now. I asked my MO the hypothetical question that if VERZENIO continued to control my liver Mets but I started to have more bone Mets what would she do. She was mostly concerned on the liver Mets and keeping them controlled and felt that there were other ways to handle bone metastases (Radiation etc). Again it was only a hypothetical so in a real life situation, I’m sure everything would have to be considered. But to me and to her, the liver Mets are more concerning than the bone Mets, so would do everything possible to control them.
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Thanks so much HOPE
Thanks Pam.Well my scans are this Friday...results Monday the 26th. We will see how treatment #4 is working......
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S3K5, So happy the procedure went well. Do they know the reason for lung fluid? Glad it cleared so you can go home. Rest and heal.
StillHaveHope - YAY on good results.
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Bevjen and S3K5, I'm very happy that your microwave ablation procedures went well!!! I had a microwave ablation of a 3cm liver tumor on 8/21/20. I looked back at my notes regarding pain meds. I was told no Tylenol after the procedure, but Advil was ok. I was given a prescription for oxycodone, but didn't end up needing it. I took Advil the first night and that was all. I hope that your recoveries will be relatively quick and pain-free!
I was scheduled for a second microwave ablation of a 1.4cm tumor tomorrow. The tumor was there in August, but they decided to ablate the tumors in two separate procedures because I'm on a clinical trial (DESTINY04 for Enhertu). This morning my insurance denied the second liver ablation. I have Anthem Blue Cross PPO and this is the first time that they have denied anything. My hospital quoted me $276,000 as the self-pay price which is orders of magnitude higher than what my insurance paid for the first procedure! We're awaiting a second insurance appeal. I met with IR at Johns Hopkins in late 2019, but my tumors were too small to treat then. They have a much more patient-friendly self-pay policy, so I may be contacting them again. I live in California, so traveling during a pandemic is an issue. Can anyone recommend a location for a liver ablation on the West Coast?
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will be praying for you Nicole!!! Will be with you in spirit
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Amen thank you Hope I know you will!!!
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Theresa, $276,000?????? HOLY COW!!!!! That is insane. I hope your insurance appeal is successful.
Hugs and prayers from, lynne
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Theresa,
Not sure if you kept info about Hopkins, but my recommendation for an IR is Dr. Robert Liddell. Good luck -- that's crazy.
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Nicole, I get treatments at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer center. My MO clearly said that liver Mets concerns her more than bone Mets. I have widespread bone Mets since 2013 and diagnosed with liver Mets in Jan2019. My treatments have been more aggressive since my liver Mets appeared. I think this may be because liver Mets can lead to liver failure which could be fatal (my guess).
Good luck with your scan. Hope this treatment is working for you. Please keep us posted.
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Theresa, I am asking this more out of curiosity - why does your MO recommend ablation on a small liver lesion? Is the systemic treatment working? So sorry to hear about insurance denial. Would it help if your MO puts in a justification that it is medically necessary?
I have multiple liver mets and the IR ablated only one that was 2.8 cm, since this was not responding to Piqray. It has actually grown slightly within 4 weeks.
The other lesions are about 2 to 2.5 cm in size but they are getting smaller. So my MO said ablation is not necessary for these. I am hoping Piqray will take care of these Mets.0 -
Thanks S3K5!
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Hi All,
My IR was able to appeal the insurance denial and my microwave liver ablation is back on schedule for tomorrow. What a rollercoaster ride!
50sgirl, Your "HOLY COW!!!" response made me laugh out loud. Thanks, I needed a good laugh!
BevJen, Thanks for the recommendation for Dr Robert Liddell at Johns Hopkins. I saw Dr Georgiades when I went there.
S3K5, I hope that you continue to feel well after your ablation! My MO is not "recommending" ablation for my liver lesions. She feels that we are in unchartered territory with the liver ablations, but is willing to support my decision. My IR would prefer to treat the lesions before they increase in size by too much. I believe the location of the mets is a consideration as well. My systemic treatment (Enhertu) is keeping the liver tumors stable, but is not shrinking them. I'm glad that you were able to have the nonresponsive 2.8cm tumor ablated and that your other liver tumors are shrinking! I hope that Piqray will wipe out your remaining mets.
NicoleRod, I will be praying for good scan results for you on Friday. Hugs!
Theresa
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Nicolerod, overall, how are you feeling? Do you have a sense that Halavan is taking care of your liver mets? You have been thru so much this past year.
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Theresa,
Yay! Good luck tomorrow with the ablation. What ridiculousness! And another wow! I'd love to know how they came up with that figure for private pay -- that was absolutely ridiculous. I was in and out of the hospital (including registration) yesterday.
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