Trish, one of our 2 metastatic liver cancer survivors has some questions for Dan – our other metastatic liver cancer survivor-.
Trish: recommended readings about cancer and cancer stages:
- colon cancer stages: an overview from Stage 0 cancer to Stage IV cancer
- Stages of throat cancer: a clear overview of 2 different ways of identifying or "staging" a cancer with clear huge pictures of throat cancer stages
- colon cancer staging: why staging is important: the size of your tumor doesn’t show the whole disease (father had an unknown primary cancer, meaning the size of his primary tumor was so small it couldn’t be detected).
- liver cancer survival rate
- Stage 4 liver cancer
I have the following questions for both Dan and Trish…
… questions also for anybody else who wants to join in!
- how did you first react when you heard that you had secondary liver cancer?
- who did you inform about your secondary liver cancer?
- how did you inform your loved ones?
- which people didn’t you inform about your cancer and why?
- how do you manage to keep on fighting the disease?
For my father who died of metastatic liver cancer, the answers would be like this:
- mom says that a year or so before father got diagnosed with secondary liver cancer he said he had a problem he couldn’t talk with mom about…
At the moment of his diagnosis there were tears in father’s eyes and from that moment on whenever you asked him how he felt, he would answer something like "human"…
- father was diagnosed when mom and 1 son where at his side. The rest of his children were informed by mom.
- father never informed anybody.
- only mom and we did inform others, only to our loved ones or to the people of palliative care, health insurance and the kind
- father gave up fighting the disease when the doctor told him there was no sure way to predict that chemotherapy would cure his cancer.
Trish’ comment and questions for Dan
Read their full survival stories and this comment at : Meet Dan: our second metastatic liver cancer survivor
Hi Dan,
I’ll get to your 31 months, no problem.
It’s so good to hear another person
doing so well, it gives me so much hope.
Last time I left a message, I had just had a CT scan, stupidly 2 weeks before I was to see the doctor, did my mind go crazy, I wanted to start smoking again, I dreamt my tumours got bigger, almost got depressed, it was all I focused on.
When I visited my doctor, he said my results were good, I’d had another shrinkage, and he tugged at my hair and said “I don’t know why you still have hair”.
I walked out of the room onto a cloud, all those awful feelings and urges gone, and I thought to myself, if I can puzzle him with my hair, maybe I can puzzle him with the lose of my cancer. I can dream.
Dan, what does stage IV mean?
Is there a kinder chemotherapy than the 2 you mentioned?
And how come you lost so much weight, I’m the heaviest now than I have been in my whole life, I joined a gym 2 months ago, have only been once, I shall motivate myself to go now.
I will go tomorrow before I come to work, last time I did it I was tired for 2 days, I suppose that could be because I’m unfit? Yep.
Gotta go,
Trish
Hello,
Trish here. I have been checking out the site from time to time, but haven’t yet had a chance to post a comment. I’ve gone back to work full time, except every second Wednesday of course.
I see there a more and more people coping with this disease. And some are having unreal results after a little chemo. Yay, there is so much hope.
I had a scan last December, again, all is well, had a reduction overall of 11%, at this rate I might damn well live forever. I wish I could get well without the chemo, it’s so tiresome, it’s been 25 months now. Knowing it keeps you alive is the only reason you tolerate that regular shot of poison. I’d much rather have a shot of poison called scotch. Ahh, thems the breaks.
I’m still on Irinotecan & 5fu, still got my hair though, it’s not even falling out now, my hairdresser said I have so much new growth, she said my hair is healthier than it was 2 years ago, except it’s really grey now. Thank God for hair colour.
I noticed that 5 questions were asked about discussing cancer with others. This is how I dealt with it.
When I found out I had cancer, I looked at the Doctor like, yeh right, I think you made a mistake. I cried, I drove home bawling my eyes out, then delivered the news to my husband.
I told everybody, I also told everybody not to worry, that it was just another challenge, I’d beaten every other obstacle in my life, I just got sent a bigger one. I also let everybody know that I would have the exact diagnosis within a week.
I got the diagnosis, 6 months, get your stuff in order. No treatment was offered.
I had to go and see my Mum so that I could support her while I delivered the outcome. I had to keep in contact with my interstate friend for 3 days until she stopped crying. My husband tried to organize overseas trips and events for my daughter and myself so that she would have some great memories of our time together, she was 14 at the time. She didn’t want to know about it, and she did not believe that it was happening. I was very frank when I told everybody, I told them that I was happy with my lot in life, and when they come to see me, I don’t want to see tears, I just want happy. There was no-one that I did not tell that knew me.
I keep on fighting now because I really believe that if I stick with it long enough, something’s going to come my way.
95% of the time I am happy. 5% of the time I get down and I can’t sleep. I’ll be sitting in the dark thinking about Me, feeling sorry for myself and say to myself “I’ve got Cancer”. Thank God that 5% passes over quickly. You’ve got to have a few tears sometimes though.
Good on everybody else coping and surviving the Chemo & Cancer. One day, I’m certain, something wonderful will happen, just hang in there.
LOL Trish XOX