How are people with liver mets doing?
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Leah good to hear from you, it has been a while since you posted here. I am sorry you markers are going up but as i am sure you know that sometimes when you start a new tx they do go up then drop down. I hope this is your case.
tell your doctor on how you feel after you eat if you intend to travel to the US. This could indicate that the liver is enlarged , make sure it is nothing of the sort so you can travel safely and enjoy your trip.
I hope it is the SE from doxil and i do hope you will be able to travel and see your family.
Sending you prayers and good vibes , please keep us informed on what you doctors says.
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Leah___S- Yes, that is exactly what I was feeling. I had not been diagnosed stage 4 yet, so I went about 6 wks ignoring it. I did start to get nauseated, and would vomit if I ate to much. I finally went to the dr when I started having pain and my pre-appointment labs showed my liver enzymes were 4-5x high. It was almost like my liver did not fit in it's space any more. Actually, it didn't, >75% tumor. Currently, my abdomen looks like I'm 7 mo pregnant and they want to do an US for ascites.
I just started Kadcyla and was told that the TM's may go up yet d/t tumor lysis. I hope this is your case. Do get the liver thing checked out though, and I hope you are able to travel as you wish!
Moni
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I have heard so many contradictory reports on Tumor Markers and whether they are a good indicator. But Have heard repeatedly that thye almost always go up for at least a couple of months. Leah I have heard that if it your liver giving your appetite problems it usually causes nausea. Best to you too Diana and Shetland!
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Wishing all of you well with the liver mets. I'm going in for low dose taxol 3 weeks on, 1 week off next Monday at UCDAVIS. Hope to get rid of the these liver mets.
Terri
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Unfortunately, the TMs are jumping even more. CA 15-3 was 579.5 before I started the Doxil. After the 1st tx - 1063.5. After the 2ns - 1841.2. After the 3rd (yesterday's blood test) - 2653.5. So I didn't get the 4th tx since onc an I agree no point. I'll have a PET/CT as soon as I can get an appt. My onc says it's best to wait with my trip until after results and new tx set up. Little girl inside of me said "I DON'T WANNA!" Smart adult part told her to shut up and then cancelled the tickets.
Leah
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Good luck Terri on low dose taxol. It's a good drug; worked for me for 10 months and saved my kidneys.
Leah sorry about the trip; the choices we have to make sometimes. I can relate to the increase in TM. Mine elevated on Lxempora and scan confirmed progression. Your onc will come up with a new Tx plan to hit those nasty cancer cells. I just started gemzar three weeks on and one week off . Praying it will lower TM and cancer burden.
Reading all responses on liver met thread. Only sending healing and good wishes to all to blast those rumors out. 👊🏻
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Leah, so sorry you had to cancel your trip. Hopefully you'll be able to reschedule when you get on top of things. I'm beginning to realise that TMs are totally inconsistent. When I started treatment mine where coming down nicely only to find after three treatments that I'd been progressing all along! I sometimes wonder what is the point of them at all?
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Leah, that is a such bummer about your trip. When you get squared away on your new meds you will have to plan something special. Terri, hoping the Taxol blasts the &*%$ out of those liver mets!
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Leah, i am sorry about your tms and the failure of doxil . Did your doctor discuss with you Ibrance /femara?
I hope the next tx will bring everything back to normal so you can go on your trip and enjoy yourself.
Keep us informed your next step.
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Terri , good luck to you on taxol i hope it shrinks those mets right back to where they came from.
Diana, i hope Gemzar is the right choise and that you would benefit from it.
Prayers and best wishes to all those whose name i forgot to mention. Healing thoughts and wishes for good responses.
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Dear all,
today, a week after her fifth dose of Kadcyla, mum is experiencing some digestive problems and had ended up vomiting all she has eaten during the day. Her blood tests last week were ok, the MRi she had a month and half ago showed stable disease (3 mets in liver less than 1 cm each) and the in PET she had about a month ago nothing new showed up (liver mets' SUV was 5.7). She says she hasn't pain in the abdomen area.
I'm really worried, since I know that vomit may be a symptom of liver mets getting worse... When she had a bigger liver met before resection she had never experienced vomit.
I know that you're no doctor, but your wisdom and experience could be very helpful. Do you think we should get worried? Or maybe she has eaten something that caused her this?
Prayers to you all
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worried daughter- it may be the meds. My liver mets are larger and more numerous and I don't have any vomiting or problems from them- but my meds do cause digestive problems. It doesn't seem likely that her Mets could haven grown enough in enough in six weeks to cause vomiting. Hers were very small, and even if they doubled in size, it wouldn't cause vomiting. But as you said, we're not doctors, but I'd look to a different reason. Check into whatever meds she's on, or any other cause, but also you should report her symptoms to her doctor on Monday to see what advice they have. Sorry .
Also, check out the Kadcyla thread. It seems that nausea is not uncommon on that drug.
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Dear sandilee,
thank you for your help. It turned out to be a bad flu, but mum already feels better. I was very worried because I never saw her feeling that sick.
Thank you again.
Prayers for you and all your family.
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G'day to my band of BC sisters, I have been lurking here for a few months but, due to being in a state of limbo regarding my status, haven't had much to report. I started CMF tx in March after having my right hip replaced and completed 3 cycles before stopping for the left hip to be repaced in June. These hips were badly affected by the AI's I have been on for the last 6 years for bone mets.
When I went back to restart the chemo, the Onc I saw did not look at the scans or blood tests I'd had done, telling me that he went by how the patient was feeling and wouldn't put me back on CMF or anything else once more! I've got to say here I left there feeling like I had been sentenced to death...probably by Xmas.
The next month, I saw another Onc who promptly set the gears in motion to start tx again, much to my relief.
I should explain here that I live in a small provincial town about 260 miles from the nearest large cancer facility in Brisbane where I had to go until two years ago. They are importing Oncs from two states away to 'fill in' until they find one willing to move here permanently, which means that I haven't seen the the same Onc twice in the last two years. The young Dr who restarted my tx was very thorough with reviewing my files and got things moving asap.
Having already completed 2 cycles that she presribed before having new scans/blood tests done and, depending on comparison w/ last scans results, I would stay w/CMF or start a new regimen.
Today, I saw a new Onc who read my files, checked my pre-chemo blood tests and chose to keep me on CMF until the new scans and blood tests are done before my next monthly app't. Apparently, my liver stats have dropped from 800 to 500...yayyy...bearing in mind that that was not the test that takes a few days to process, but I left there looking forward to seeing this Xmas in.
As I am in my 21st year since primary dx, I know I am very fortunate to still be here now, but we wouldn't be human if we didn't want a little bit longer, at least long enough for very young grandchildren to be able to remember us
I hope this gives a comprehensive overview of my position and doesn't raise too many questions, which I will answer happily anyway
Sheila.
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Nice to hear from you Shelia- Glad you have a treatment plan and are doing well. Your post gave me flash backs to the trip I took to your lovely country almst 3 years ago. Brisbine was our last stop. We loved our vacation so much my husband looked into a locums job there. Unfortunately, because of my stage 4 status, I coudln't get the medical coverage I needed so we are still living in the states. But I remember my time there so fondly. Best wishes to you.
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scanxiety day for me today. tomorrow is my first scan since I had my liver surgery in July. I am in the middle of my bad days of my Xeloda cycle and woke up feeling bloated. And you all know what that means. Trying to keep my head in the game and know I should be fine. My brain scan was good last month and so was my echo. Just hoping tomorrow brings the same news. Just a little scared as they changed my targeted treatment as well. so lots of first with ths new scan.
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Sorry you didn't make it down here, leftfootforward, you surely would have had a good life here.
I was told that surgery to the liver couldn't be done, possibly due to bleeding issues...so did they cut out liver lesions or do some other procedure.
Sheila.
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Shelia- they did a partial left lobe resection. They removed in total 20% of my liver. I only had one lesion this time and I guess it was in a good place. They had to tie off some blood vessels but that went ok. I guess if they couldn't do that they would have removed the entire left lobe. So I was lucky. The first time around with liver lesions, they told me they couldn't do anything for me because my liver was so full of cancer. So i am happy I could do someting this time around.
I wish we could have moved there as well. Love Australia. We spent a month there. took the kids out of school and enjoyed every minute of it.
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Morning AussieSheila, from a fellow Aussie. I'm in Torquay, on Victorian Surfcoast not far from Melbourne. luckily we have a large regional hospital in Geelong, about 20 mins away that has a large cancer centre. I usually get to see the same onc. Though the waiting times can be horrendous. Must be hard for you to see different people all the time but you are still here and sounds like your keeping your spirits up. Where exactly are you? We lived in Townsville for couple of years. but it was way too hot and humid. Nice and cool down here. I love this forum and find it so much better than the BCNA which is really hard to find your way around and it's always interesting to Learn of the different treatments and protocols from our mostly american sisters. feels like we're missing out sometimes.
Left foot best of luck with your scans today
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Pleased to meetcha Isy, I live in Maryborough and attend Hervey Bay hospital but they have set up a dedicated palliative care ward in the Maryborough which opened up a week ago. The two hospitals share different specialtys thank goodness as we have the stroke rehab centre for the whole Fraser Coast along with the Renal/dialysis clinic. My 37 yr old daughter spent 8 months in the stroke unit last year and, as Hervey Bay is 30 mins from here, it would have stressed me out having to drive there sometimes 3 times a day. HB hospital has just opened a brand new Oncology unit this year but we will have 'til Feb 2016 for our first full time Onc to arrive. As you say, I think we are a bit behind the states in our treatments here...mostly because of the gov'ts rules and budgets.
Sheila.
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Leftfoot,
Praying for goog and happy scsn results for you. Positive thoughts anc prayers heading your way .
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To all of you ladies having scansvor waiting for results bestvof wishes.
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Had my abdominal CT today, so I should know by Monday whether the Xeloda is working on my liver mets. Thanks for your good wishes, Woody.
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Wishing you the best Sandilee!
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Hello, AussieSheila. Scanning after three months is what my onc does, too. Hoping you get great results! It's an interesting set-up you have in your town. You get input from different doctors.
Sandilee, I hope you have something fun planned this weekend to keep your mind off waiting for CT results.
Leftfootforward, when do you get results?
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Thanks, artistatheart and ShelandPony. I just returned from a tea at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. It was lovely, and I spent time with two of my favorite relatives. I'm not very nervous about the scan this time. I just feel that it will be good. I feel it "in my bones," haha. Of course, it could surprise me.
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sandilee- Wishing you the best!
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leftfootforward-when did you have your liver surgery? My MO is presenting my case to the tumor board to see if I am a good candidate or not. I should know next week. What has the recovery been like?
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BabyRuth- it was in July. Recovery went well. It was a lapeoscipic procedure and they didn't have to remove the whole left lobe. I am just getting back to ab work and get full faster than before. I was more sore than I thought I would be but was off pain meds in three days.overall I didn't find it that difficult to recover from. Had to give myself blood thinning shots for 28 days sobruised easily. I can give more details if you want.
I hope they have options for you. They might mention ablation. That's a great option as well. Much faster recovery. Let me know what tumor board says. We can then compare notes.,
Best wishes
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They have talked about ablation so that might be an option. Were they able to remove all of your tumors and are you now considered NED? I would really like the surgery option but it scares me a little too. Once I find out for sure, I would love to talk to you in more detail.
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