New from Cal

bferrer
bferrer Member Posts: 3
in Peritoneal Cancer #1
Hello
I found this site, while trying to find more info on Peritoneal cancer.
My mom was informed at the end of June last year, that she had Peritoneal Cancer. I feel like I/we have been running ever since.I feel like we landed in a made for TV movie. There was no cancer in our family until a couple of years ago. One of my Aunts got diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and cancer in her lymph-nodes. Her cancer is in remission now. Then this happened to my mom. My mom is 67, she does not smoke or drink, she eats pretty health and she is somewhat active. So this cancer diagnoses came out of the blue.
My Brother moved her out of her place and she moved in with him because she needed to start chemo asap. She had fluid around her stomach, and was having a hard time breathing. It was scary. She had to have fluid removed 3 x's during a 1 month.
While she was living with my brother, I was looking for a place for my mom and I, because I knew she wanted to live with me. The type of work I do (work with HIV Positive people), I understand the medical stuff a bit more than my brother does. Even so, I still do not understand this cancer as much as I feel I need to, in order to give my mom the support she needs. The nurses and NP's at my job, and the cancer resource center has help me and my mom a lot.
So now my mom has had 3 rounds of chemo, surgery and 3 more rounds of chemo. My mom is a tuff woman, and is always up beat, she even looks pretty good bald. She took the chemo really well, it so far has only made her very tired. The last scan she had , the doc went over at her appt on 12/28/11. She said they could not detect any cancer , and what was left of the mass was gone.

So now she needs to make a decision about what is next. She can either do maintenance chemo for a year, once a month, or not do chemo, and have them monitor her to see if the cancer comes back.

I feel like I/we need to talk to the Doc more, I am a little confused on the rate of this stuff coming back

Wondering if anyone else has had to make this decision?
I know we all heal a little different, depending on many different factors.
Would like to get an Ideal how others have done with this cancer.
Thank you

Comments

  • christine22
    christine22 Member Posts: 7
    #2
    bferrer
    Hi.. Sry to hear about ur mom. I also have PPC i am stage 3 low grade.I had my surgery first then started chemo i was opened from top to bottom they did a debulking and hysterectomy and they took part of my bladder.I was on Carbo and Taxol also i did 6 rounds and no maintenance chemo i was in remission for 3 yrs it just came back now and i start chemo again in 2 weeks .I chose to do it this way because my Dr told me ur body can become resistant to the chemo so i personally wanted to wait since the toxic twins worked well for me .(Carbo and Taxol) I wish ur mom well.God Bless
    Christine
  • Best Friend
    Best Friend Member Posts: 222
    #3
    hey
    So, the chemo worked so well your mom did not need the surgery? That is wonderful. My mom had the 3 chemos, surgery, 3 chemos. I find most docs do surgery than chemo. However, I think it all depends on the doc themselves. My mom's had spread pretty bad so i think they wanted to shrink what they could before surgery. It was crazy to put her through that. She was so worn out. To make a long story short, she had the surgery, more chemo, and now she is in remission. There is a check-up every three months and they check ur ca125 number. If it's raised than she starts chemo again. It's not easy. She is always afraid it will come back. It's only been 3 months. But everyone stays in remission for a different amount of time.

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