Laproscopic liver resection

Glv49
Glv49 Member Posts: 206 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi,

My husband had his liver resection last Friday, laproscopic, they removed one small node less than a centimeter. He is doing good, came home on Monday, would have been Sunday, but.. he was a little short of breath, and had to take some breathing treatments. They said he had a lot of anestesia because it was in a tricky location, and surgery took longer than expected. It was done with a robot assisting.. that is just amazing to me. Now he goes to see his oncologist next week, to see about whether or not he will have chemo. I am hoping she wants to give hime some. Now he had a CT before chemo, which never showed the liver spot. So now the question is was it there? But too tiny to show up before he took his chemo? Right after 6 mos of folfox the PET/CT showed the small spot on liver. So I was just wondering, maybe its possible it was there, but chemo slowed it down and it never got bigger. They said it was definetly a colon cancer met. If any of you have gone thru this, I would apprecitate any input.

Thanks,
Gail

Comments

  • lisa42
    lisa42 Member Posts: 3,625 Member
    #2
    post surgery chemo
    HI Gail,

    If I were you, I would push for post surgery chemo (called adjuvant chemo). I've shared on the board before that I did not have any post surgery chemo after my liver resection and four months later, my PET scan showed something suspicious in my liver (in addition to several lung mets). At first, they said they couldn't really tell if it was really anything, because postsurgical inflammation shows up on PET scans & it would take a while. By the next scan three months after that, it had grown just slightly, but we then knew it really was a recurrence in the liver. When I consulted with another oncologist then, he said if he had been my oncologist then, he would have wanted me to have the chemo after surgery as a safeguard. I was so glad to not have had it at that time and I would have really been bummed if they had actually recommended it, BUT LOOKING BACK now, I wish that I had been given it. It's taken me basically 7 months of chemo to get back to the point I was right after my surgery. I'm now going to begin maintenance treatment to keep things from growing again! In my case, I'm going to be taking Xeloda (a fairly low dose of 1,000 mg- 1 500 mg. pill in a.m. & another in p.m.) and I'll be getting infused with Avastin once every two weeks.

    If your husband can handle it, I think it's kind of like an insurance to take the chemo after his surgery.

    Best wishes to you and him-
    Lisa
  • robinvan
    robinvan Member Posts: 1,012
    #3
    Beep...Beep... Take Me to Your Liver!!
    Wow!! A laproscopic robot! I'm sure your kids think it is pretty cool that Dad has a robot doctor!!

    Glad to here the procedure went well. Laproscopic surgery... It sure cuts down on the recovery time and post-op complications. Both my liver procedures, resection and RFA, were open surgery. Big incision!
    On to chemo. I had adjuvant chemo after my initial surgery (Aug'04) and my recurrence (Mar'07).

    Good luck with the onc. next week.

    Rob; in Vancouver
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #4
    chemo
    good for your husband....that sounds like a pretty slick surgery. i have had 2 liver re-sections and chemo after both of them

    I had 1 and one half years of NED and then another spot appeared on the liver.. My liver surgeon encouraged me to do chemo the second time. He felt new studies from Euope were strongly suggesting it helps in cases like ours....mine is colon cancer also.

    I am on oxalyplatin and the same as Lisa....xeloda for 14 days on and 6 days off.

    Good luck and tell hubby to heal well

    Hugs
    mags
  • Glv49
    Glv49 Member Posts: 206 Member
    #5
    lisa42 said:

    post surgery chemo
    HI Gail,

    If I were you, I would push for post surgery chemo (called adjuvant chemo). I've shared on the board before that I did not have any post surgery chemo after my liver resection and four months later, my PET scan showed something suspicious in my liver (in addition to several lung mets). At first, they said they couldn't really tell if it was really anything, because postsurgical inflammation shows up on PET scans & it would take a while. By the next scan three months after that, it had grown just slightly, but we then knew it really was a recurrence in the liver. When I consulted with another oncologist then, he said if he had been my oncologist then, he would have wanted me to have the chemo after surgery as a safeguard. I was so glad to not have had it at that time and I would have really been bummed if they had actually recommended it, BUT LOOKING BACK now, I wish that I had been given it. It's taken me basically 7 months of chemo to get back to the point I was right after my surgery. I'm now going to begin maintenance treatment to keep things from growing again! In my case, I'm going to be taking Xeloda (a fairly low dose of 1,000 mg- 1 500 mg. pill in a.m. & another in p.m.) and I'll be getting infused with Avastin once every two weeks.

    If your husband can handle it, I think it's kind of like an insurance to take the chemo after his surgery.

    Best wishes to you and him-
    Lisa

    Thanks to all who posted, I
    Thanks to all who posted, I definetly hope they give him some post surgery chemo. I will keep all of you posted. Yes, my husband said the robot was pretty big, with controls that I guess the doc used.. my grandkids did think that was pretty cool...lol

    Gail

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