Liver chemoembolisation tomorrow, pet scan found 1 cm met today

Good luck, Pete.

Seems iike most folks with a single met do well with this treatment.  Hope all goes smoothly.  AA

pete43lost_at_sea said:

thanks jeff and ann

so the warrior is a wimp, or human at least.

the 5th tace was the worst by far. reasonable pain, almost vomiting for hours. super tired. so i rested all afternoon.

i was the last patient, vogel added me to the list, so grateful to be done. i was preped on the table next to this massive lcd.

he had visiting italian radiologists / onc in gowns, i got the doctors sales pitch as well. the convnetional onc complained about avastin systemic sides effects, vogel explained that local avastin, custom prepared somehow for him has very few issues. its what i need. he showed the mri spot where the vessels are clearly not normal. he has zapped the area needing treatment as high as it can go.

i was booked for a 3pm local hyperthermia in another clinic, i was just getting taken off the table at 3pm. so i still had to do 3hours mandatory don't move or you die stuff. 

sounds extreme, my typical exaggeration, but with to much truth. if you move your leg, the arterial seal ( uses aquaseal ) the glue from your local hardware HAHA. not , but the glue is needed to allow the artery to heal. now if you move a get a serious hamatoa, well they want to that side ever again. then you down to just one artery in the other leg. so previously i have been cutting the recovery time so i can get across town to do local hyperthermia 30 minute drive. 

bsically i need to be the first person on the list for the day, not the last. 

vogel still describes me as his miracle, his goal is long term remission for me. next vogel booked 1july. my last vogel was 6feb, clearly to long ago. he was impressed by yhte speed of dealing with the rise, the fact he squeezed me in i am grateful for. the chemo was mitomycycin, irenotecan, avastin. the fat ply lasts 2 days he said, he just did the liver.

i explained some of the immunotherapy strategies, he was not real interested, he is a real specialist, i admire his focus. its dr kopic my oncologist and immunotherapist that has to make the pieces of the puzzle fit.

now today with vogel clearly its not less is more, more is more. he hammered my liver with chemo, just the way i like. its not a trial, its the real thing, i have not felt that sick since my first hit of removab. 

i have full body hyperthermia tomorrow at hallwang and infusions. i managed the driving 5 hours return just ok, the fact i rested all day and slept on the floor in the waiting room for a few hours, all helped me make it through another interesting day in germany.

hugs,

pete

ps a really close mate from the clinic was next to me in recovery, he was in agony and vomiting constantly. tace is not a walk in the park, if i gave that impression i apologise. sometimes it can be, other times well its a bittch. same old same old, time will tell and we are all so different. i describe this journey as an adventure, my way of coping with it, my mate was so ill, maybe my prayers for us all helped, not much else you can do when on your back and cannot move an inch. as they wheeled me past my mate, i said see ya, he could barely open his eyes, i detected a glimour of a smile. my friend is a tough old boiler. if he read this he would kick my butt. he was given 3 months to live, we both flew over to hallwang last october, the difference he went home after 4 weeks.

 

 

Hey Pete,
You found it early,
Hey Pete,

You found it early, obliterated it and moved forward. Nice work. I was surprised by your comment about TACE not being a walk in the park. I know Ren had a hard time, but I thought most people breezed through it quite easily. I guess we all have our own individual responses to these treatments. Anyhow, keep up the good work.

Chelsea

Wishing you the best and hope you feel better.  You have been through a lot of treatment in the last year and I'm surprised you are still so upbeat about everything.  Glad that you got your treatment and you found it as fast as you did.  Hoping you feel better soon.

Kim

PhillieG said:

Hi Chelsea

I don't believe that anyone has an easy time all the time. True, some have it easier than others, some have it harder than others. Some do OK with their treatment of choice but have bad surgeries. I don't think you're thinking it's easy by any means so please don't think I'm singling you out. It's CANCER!!! It's a bumpy road but it is able to be navigated.

ps: I was a little surprised too. We don't always hear the entire story. I've withheld some details at times if it's not pertinent but I don't find that we sugar-coat anything (because sugar is bad for us!)

-p :-)

Yeah, I hear you, Phil. Just
Yeah, I hear you, Phil. Just wishful thinking on my part, I guess. Steve is waiting to find out what comes next. TACE is a possibility. He is really hoping for a two-stage resection. He will be disappointed if it is decided that it's not the best option. I tell myself that if surgery doesn't work out at least the other treatment options (hopefully) won't cause him to be too sick or involve a big lengthy recovery. It's been constant chemo/surgery for two years. The HIPEC recovery was particularly brutal.

Like you, I haven't elaborated too much with regards to the unpleasant treatment details. I think most of us are sensitive in this way as we don't want to frighten anyone who is just coming to terms with a recent diagnosis. But, I also think it's important that we are forthcoming as we don't want folks going through chemo and recoveries thinking that they're unique (or worse off than others) in how horrible they feel. I guess it's a fine line. As Buzz would have said, "It is what it is.". Lol.

Congratulations on the success you've had with your SBRT treatment.

Chelsea

Chelsea71 said:

Yeah, I hear you, Phil. Just
Yeah, I hear you, Phil. Just wishful thinking on my part, I guess. Steve is waiting to find out what comes next. TACE is a possibility. He is really hoping for a two-stage resection. He will be disappointed if it is decided that it's not the best option. I tell myself that if surgery doesn't work out at least the other treatment options (hopefully) won't cause him to be too sick or involve a big lengthy recovery. It's been constant chemo/surgery for two years. The HIPEC recovery was particularly brutal.

Like you, I haven't elaborated too much with regards to the unpleasant treatment details. I think most of us are sensitive in this way as we don't want to frighten anyone who is just coming to terms with a recent diagnosis. But, I also think it's important that we are forthcoming as we don't want folks going through chemo and recoveries thinking that they're unique (or worse off than others) in how horrible they feel. I guess it's a fine line. As Buzz would have said, "It is what it is.". Lol.

Congratulations on the success you've had with your SBRT treatment.

Chelsea

For me TACE was brutal and

For me TACE was brutal and redefined my concept of pain. When ever docs asked me to describe my pain from 1 to 10, I would  say 7 for example. Well after TACE the 7 has become 2 on the one to ten scale.

The up side is that with tace, even if you have a bad ride, it  is temporary, lasting half a day at most. Also I had none of the typical chemo related side effects. Another bonus. And most importantly, visible changes in tumours after only a few hours.

pete43lost_at_sea said:

thanks gail, kim, ren, here4lfe, chelsea, phil

I wokeup fine this morning, I was really surprised. i had a long deep sleep. i was woken by a phone call from the clinic that if i want full body hyperthermia i better get their in 30 minutes. i said see you soon. this is my 5th full body hyperthermia, it went petty smoothly, i got up to 39.5 degrees for a few hours, i was still pretty washed out all afternoon and drifted in and out of sleep while having infusions. i got some ozone, and some special iv omega 3. its good for targetting inflamation.

I might have problems getting back into the country, some over staying visa isssues, i am trying to sort tomorrow morning, i am flying home to sydney for 3 weeks, daughters confirmation on sunday and off to oncologist monday for some avastin and low dose xeloda and thalidamide. not the standard cocktail, but what my oncologist ordered, and what i will try and get provided for in australia.

thanks for the support, I just learned that we have one specialist offering tace, just to the liver, what vogel offers is unique in that he treats tumours all over the body, and I think the drug cocktails he injects.

My sick friend is back in the clinic, has not been out of his room all day, healing takes time, so does recovering from these therapies. Instead of pushing really hard and high with hypethermia, today the nurse and i decided to go soft and keep some energy in store. not a bad strategy when trying to outsmart a chronic condition.

hugs,

Pete

ps I am looking forward to low dose chemo and avastin for a few weeks, the thalidomide should be interesting, but its covered by our medicare system if the oncologist is certified for its admission. I had a really excellent chat with D Kopic today about the strategy for the next 6 months and about where we dropped the ball in keeping my ned status. its nice to learn from our mistakes, hopefully the vogel kills recurrence 2, time will tell how effective this targetted treatment was.

 

Thalidomide?

Hi Pete,

I actually had to go looking regarding thalidomide as a cancer treatment as my only reference point was the "scandal" of birth defects when it was given to pregnant women for naeusa.

______________________________________

From the Mayo Clinic web site: 

Thalidomide may interfere with the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), which tumors use to get nourishment to help them grow and spread. If thalidomide prevents the formation of blood vessels to tumors, it could stop the growth and spread of some cancers. Preliminary clinical studies have found that thalidomide, when combined with other drugs, may show some promise in treating several types of cancers.

_____________________________________

I would be interested to know what the ramifications are to the body if no new blood vessels are being created for the rest of the body, since that is a normal function particularly for wound healing.

Thanks for the info Pete.

Marie who loves kitties