Thanks for sharing!

Could you comment more what you eat, how much you sleep, what kind of exercises you do,

… anything that could be helpful for anybody doing chemotherapy as a cancer treatment?

Dan here. It has been 31 months since I learned of stage IV metastasized liver cancer from the colon. I had a resection in March 2006 and started chemo in April 2006. The dotors were kndly but expected only about two months survival. I had stints in my liver to open the bile ducts.

I have had the gamut of chemo drugs and the tumors did shrink a little. Irinotecan and Oxalyplatin were the most difficult side effects and loss of appetite fatigue causing medicines.

I am going for the record (living to be 100, 60 now). I have two grandchildren born this year six months apart. They need me around, and I love watching them!

Stay positive and exercise even if it is hard to do. I work three days a week as a consultant, sometimes the side effects force me to drag myself out the door. I was more or less expected to die last April 2008 having lost almost 100 pounds but I have recovered and gained back 50 of those pounds, about the right weight (even a little high).

I simply do not worry about the illness, though I hate being a burden to my wife when the worst bouts of fatigue make me helpless to get out of the chair for more than a short time, but those days come and go depending on the drug I am taking.

Well, I hope this is encouraging to you, at 20 months you have me to catch up to at 30!

Dan

Thanks for sharing Trish and being our first Metastatic liver cancer survivor.

Of course all our love, hugs and prayers to you and your family.

I’m 44 years old, will be 45 soon, Thank God, I was supposed to die when I was 43. I was diagnosed December 2006.

The doctor that delivered the news (who I hated for about 6 months mind you) gave me 4 to 6 months to live, he told me to get my things in order and go sit at a vineyard, enjoy some wine and watch the sunset.
My Husband and I said that I would gladly sit and enjoy it, if I could sit down. I had a tumour the size of a small can of drink on my rectum, it couldn’t be operated on, so he sent me to a radiologist.
When I met the radiologist, I asked her never to tell me how long I have to live, I think she wrote it on my documents, my oncologist doesn’t tell me either.
The radiologist crammed 30 treatments into 10, I also had chemo attached to me, being metered over a week at a time for 2 weeks.
The obvious after the Radiotherapy was the burns, I was burnt inside and out, back and front for about 3 weeks. I pretended it didn’t hurt, I did have to ask for pain killers in the end though, but once the burning healed, I was off the morphine.
1 week later I started Chemotherapy (Oxcilliplatin & 5FU 46hr infusion) I managed 12 and a bit fortnightly treatments of this
(I think my oncologist likes to push things to the limit, which I think is great for me), the largest tumour on my liver had decreased by half. I was stoked. My oncologist let me have 6 months off with just the fortnightly 46hr infusion of 5FU.
After another cat scan, a couple of my tumours had grown a little, so back onto the big chemo again (Ironotecan this time, I find it dastardly, it knocks my white cells for a 6, has put my in hospital a couple of times, had a nice rest there though), tomorrow I’ll be going in for my 12th cycle of 12,(hopefully I’ll get a little break from chemo again, fingers crossed).
My tumour markers have been under 3 for over 1 year now.

I think in all the time I have been on chemo (20 months now), I have always believed that a cure will eventually be found, and if I can stay strong and healthy enough till it’s found, I like to believe that I will be one of the first survivors of secondary metastatic liver cancer.

I have been very fortunate to be able to cope pretty well with the chemo, it’s funny, my Mum takes me to the hospital on Chemo days and everybody directs conversation to her, until she rolls her eyes and points her thumb at me. Fortunately I haven’t all lost my hair, it’s thinned a bit though, unfortunately though, I’ve put on 14 kilos since starting chemo. ( I guess taking the steriods to stop vomiting is worth it, I feel sorry for myself when I vomit, and feeling sorry for myself is not something I do often), I’m going to make a request to my oncologist that the next lot of chemo he puts me on gives me only 1 sleep day recovery, lots of energy, and encourages weightloss. I’m sure I’m going to die of obesity instead.

Boredom makes me feel miserable. I try to go out as much as I can. I go to work approx. 3 days a week (fortunately for me, it’s my husbands business, I can work when I want to) I love the interaction with our customers, I forget that I’m sick when I’m busy, the only time I have anybody do anything for me is when I go in for my chemo, I take muscle relaxants with this chemo, it’s like truth serum. I forget what I’ve said when they wear off. My Mum says I yak on the way home, and she’ll ask me a few days later if I did what I said I was going to, and I ask her what the hell she’s talking about. Hey, I felt good at the time.

This is the fist time I have posted a comment in my life, it feels good to talk about what’s happened over the past couple of years. My family believe me when I say I’m going to conquer this disease. I suspect that they are bored with me talking about it, sometimes I think they envy my experience of a lifetime (mmm maybe not). When I found out, oddly I accepted my fate, and had to assure my best friends and family that I was cool with it and that it was just another challenge.

Please, please, be as positive as you can be about your condition. As crap as it makes you feel, I really believe the chemo helps. And I really believe your attitude helps too.
Hey, thanks for listening.

Trish from Brisbane Q Australia

Thanks for sharing your story, which is featured at More metastatic liver cancer minds out of control

All our love, hugs and prayers to you and your family!