Metastatic liver cancer

This post is an introduction to alternative cancer treatments, mainly a repeat from Kistan2’s question which we will print out below as it is part of her liver cancer story. Many hugs to you Kistan2 and thanks for sharing.

Our next post is about an alternative that sounds good in the sense of giving a person suffering from liver cancer a better quality of life. Yes, I am very prudent using the term : "alternative cancer treatments" as I will keep on saying that:

the only way to eradicate cancer is to prevent it!

This is a political choice and as you have noticed, it isn’t in any of the 3 remaining candidates program for the US presidential elections

Why a political choice? Because they can implement policies in order to :

• make sure we can breath in healthy air
• make sure we can drink healthy water
• make sure we can eat healthy food

Not healthy according to "their standards", but healthy to eradicate cancer big time.

All we can do at this point is try to eat as much healthy organic food as possible, reduce on red meat and increase on doing exercises.

Liver Cancer Story from Kistan2

My 43 yr. old husband was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma early February of this year.

[ hepatocellular carcinoma is a type of liver cell cancer: a malignant growth made up of liver epithelial cells (cells forming the covering of most internal and external surfaces of the body and its organs) that tend to infiltrate the surrounding tissues and give rise to metastases ]

The oncologist that we consulted with all concluded that his mass was to large to operate on and it was too dangerous for the other recommended treatments.

Our only option was the liver cancer drug - Nexavar which he began on Feb. 12th.

Since then his oncologist has also combined the treatment with an infusion of Avastin (which is not approved by Blue Cross Blue Shield).

Since the infusion I have watched my husband go downhill with extreme high blood pressure which leaves him weak and fatigued most of the time. He barely leaves his bedroom and when he does it’s only to eat.

To me, he is getting more jaundiced which is not a good sign.

We have two young children (3 & 12) - I feel saddest when I think of the kids without their father around.

This disease has turned our whole world upside down - I am praying for a miracle but from what I’ve read about this disease, it just doesn’t look good.

Everyday I feel like he is drifting further and further away from us and I live in a constant state of sadness and loss (even though he is still with us).

I’m always on the Internet looking for alternative treatments for his cancer. Has anyone ever tried alternative medicine and have gotten good results from it?

Metastatic liver cancer addings…

• Kistan2 says : To me, he is getting more jaundiced which is not a good sign. I also thought father was getting more jaundiced, so I asked my doctor and he said : not at all. So in all cases cancer: always ask for a (second) doctor’s opinion.
• The drug our GP doctor suggested was Xeloda, which is a pill taken orally and should only work on the tumor without messing up the entire body. Yet our oncologist said: it is still a chemo-therapy causing the common well-known side-effects. He suggested to not give any treatment, therefore we didn’t have the "chemo-therapy" side effects. But you do need to be prepared for the side effects of:
• a growing liver that pushes against all organs in the belly, causing enormous pain
• a failing liver that can’t clean all the blood which sooner or later starts affecting the brain (like people poisoning their blood do to not enough food… hallucinations are to be expected)
• As long as your husband is there, he is there: do cherish these moments as good as possible!

Please do leave a comment:

did you try alternative medicine and
what were the good results from it?

We also listed a small introduction to alternative cancer treatments at our liver cancer survival rate page.

Technorati Tags: alternative cancer treatments, hepatocellular carcinoma, Introduction to alternative cancer treatments, Liver Cancer, liver cancer story, quality of life, suffering from

In the liver cancer story from Jessica it is not clear whether she talks about a primary cancer or a metastatic liver cancer. But the outcome is clear: too many people die from cancer…

Notice how Jessica prays for a cure for all cancers where we take it one step further and pray that people start promoting cancer prevention globally.

Just like Jessica we all have been struggling with father’s death as well. For mother the struggle is both physical as emotional:

• she has torn a ligament due to carrying father around, but after one year that’s more or less taken care of
• the loss of father is not at all taken care of: sometimes I call her up and I can tell she has been crying…

We were told in advance:

• the doctor who made father’s metastatic liver cancer diagnosis said:
  it’s easy for me to say in these 4 walls of the hospital, you will leaving the hospital soon and have to deal with it
• a few of the palliative care-takers and a few widows:
  taking care of your father is only the beginning of the story, yet when your father passes away, the story will be far from over…

We totally agree with Jessica’s words: "father now is in a place where there is no pain".

Jessica’s liver cancer story

Many generations in my family have cancer.

I have had two of my grandparents (grandmas) who have died because of cancer.

• one who was my step-grandma she had breast cancer and
• the other was my closest granny and she had liver cancer.

I have been struggling with their deaths a lot, and it hurt to see them go through it all too.

I just pray to God, that He will help our doctors find a cure for all cancers.

Its such a horrible cause of death and its so hard for the families to see it happen.

I miss my grandparents so much, but I realize that they are in a better place with no pain, where I will see them again.

Thank you for making this website.

Technorati Tags: 4 walls, cancer cure, cancer diagnosis, Cancer prevention, cancers, care takers, doctor who, ligament, liver cancer story, Metastatic Liver Cancer, Palliative care, struggle, widows

Another Liver Cancer story we received in our call for "Do
you have a liver cancer story". Thanks Kaye for sharing Kim’s liver cancer story. All our love and hugs. Please leave a comment and show Kaye your support!

For those new in liver cancer, Kaye’s story just like father’s metastatic liver cancer story tells you:

• there is an invisible killer amongst us that even the medical world cannot pinpoint on time…
• lots of doctors ignore red flags that should point to further analyses and could point to an early detection of cancer (why we have all these medical facilities and people, when they are just under used???, don’t say it’s too expensive: nothing compares with the billions wasted in Iraq…)

For those that have a loved one with cancer in palliative care

• … shocked and still in disbelief at the rapid decline and death of my beautiful soulmate…
• … the palliative care nurses came to our home like angels in the night and without them my husband and I would not have been afforded the dignity and our wish for him to remain with us till the end …
• … some things you don’t tell to even your most beloved one …

Liver cancer prognosis

Some of you might say: I have heard liver cancer stories where the cancer patient still lives on for 2 years after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

This is true, but most likely because the liver cancer was diagnosed in its very early stage.

In Kim’s story below they did notice "red spots" 18 months ago…

Symptoms of liver cancer

In Kim’s story we read some extra symptoms we never noticed with father’s metastatic liver cancer… We also learned from mother that father once told her "he had something on his mind he couldn’t tell her…".

Both:

• recognizing symptoms early and
• talking about

can let your life turn into another direction…

BUT:

why is there no talk about cancer prevention???

We are still looking forward for any politician who puts cancer prevention on the agenda…
Or in other words: who puts a healthy lifestyle on top of the agenda…

Better be safe than sorry is extremely true when it comes to cancer…

Kim’s liver cancer story

My husband, aged 49, died of liver cancer on the 5 March 2008.

He went for a employment medical in mid February2008 and the doctor noticed some red spots on his upper body. (other doctors had ignored this earlier) These had been around for about 18 months and we had put them down to burst blood capillaries that his dad has too.

The doctor felt his liver and said it was enlarged and referred him for an ultrasound & blood test

The results we received on the week preceding the 18th Feb were good news in that the diagnosis was benign growths and he had Hep C. (My husband was an ambulance office early in his career & this may have been the point of infection)

His concern was for me however & I tested negative for Hep C on the 19th and the doctor referred my husband to a clinic to treat his Hep C.

At the referred clinic appointment on the 21 Feb the doctor said my husband needed urgent blood test and cT scan. The bloods were taken that afternoon and the CT scan was performed the next day on the 22nd Feb.

My husband went into the scan appearing and feeling well and the moment he came out he complained of a sore shoulder which he thought was from laying in the machine with his arms above his head.

By that night he was in extreme pain and by the 23 Feb afternoon I took him to the local hospital emergency to get some relief.

The pain did not subside and on the 24 Feb he started to hiccup and did not stop. We again went to the local hospital emergency as the hiccups were interfering with his breathing and he was becoming very exhausted.

More pain relief coupled with valium were prescribed to relax his diaphragm. My husband was not to happy to be drugged so much and I was becoming increasingly concerned about him.

On the 25th February (Monday morning) I rang the clinic and pleaded with them to see my husband as I KNEW there was something really wrong and his face was very sick looking.

We were advised to come through the clinic’s hospital emergency and after waiting a number of hours (while my husband continued to hiccup) a registrar from the clinic came to see him. She said that the hiccup and shoulder pain were part and parcel of the “advanced aggressive liver cancer” that my husband had.

We were flabbergasted/stunned/shocked/crying and said that this was the first we had heard of CANCER . The registrar explained that there was no available treatment and requested that we keep the appointment we were meant to get the ct results at for the following Thursday (28th February) to discuss palliative care.

We returned home and Kim and I decided not to tell anyone in the near future to let ourselves digest the prospects.

That night I googled liver cancer + hiccups and some site referred to this symptom as the ‘final stages’. I shut the computer down and didn’t tell my husband this.

In the meantime the shoulder pain and the hiccups continued into the 27th and by lunchtime the drugs prescribed over the weekend by the emergency doctors at our visits rendered my husband bombed out and he stopped breathing.

I called his GP in a mad panic and shook him to life and called an ambulance.

I called all our kids and my husbands family. we became inundated with visitors.

The doctors asked if my husband wanted to stay in hospital and all we wanted to do was get home which we did.

We went along to the scheduled Thursday appointment at the clinic and the doctor told us my husband had about 2 months to live. We cried all the way home in the car.

Thursday night and the pain increased and I got on the phone to palliative services in desperation on the 29th and with the help of the clinic urging them to come they visited us at home that day.

The nurse took one look at my husband …organised better meds for pain relief and told us she thought he had a week or 2 left at best.

A morphine pump was fitted to Kim on Saturday the 1st March.

He was given steroids which lifted him on the 2nd and 3rd.

On the evening of the 4th after much love amongst us all and the kids we went to bed and he started to die before my eyes.

He died on the 5th at around 10.45 in the morning.

I am shocked and still in disbelief at the rapid decline and death of my beautiful soulmate.

I believe the contrast that my husband drank for the CT scan blew his cancer and symptoms up and hastened his death. Only consolation is that this may have shortened the time he was in pain.

On reflection symptoms of lethargy were around about 18 months beforehand that we put down to his dislike of his job ( which he changed and worked hard at his new job)

He also went thru bout of itching about 18 months prior to his death.

The palliative care nurses came to our home like angels in the night and without them my husband and I would not have been afforded the dignity and our wish for him to remain with us till the end.

Do you have a liver cancer story? Leave a comment and share your cancer story with us: it’s a relief to know that other people have lived the same ordeal and that don’t have any judgments about the things you did and didn’t do…

Technorati Tags: CANCER STORIES, Liver Cancer, liver cancer prognosis, liver cancer story, Metastatic Liver Cancer, symptoms of liver cancer