New to the forum

Hi everyone,
I just joined the forum today after coming across it searching for information in Irinotecan. I do not live in the USA like most of you but there doesn't seem to be a site out there like this for New Zealand.

My father has colorectal cancer with liver mets and we have just reached the two year mark in the battle against this. I moved home from overseas in July of 2008 to help out my Mum with care taking and just being there for my Dad during this time. He has had a rough ride through it all but still stays strong. I am 24yrs old and my Dad is 58.

In April 2008 he started treatment with Capecitabine and Oxaliplatin. He went through 3 treatments of this but got so sick with diarrhea that he ended up in hospital and on a walking frame, he was basically crawling to the bathroom and was in a lot of pain. Then the hiccups started, not the little hiccups like when you've eaten to fast but huge gasping hiccups. The hospital tried everything but could not find anything to stop it. The hiccups increased to almost 24hrs a day giving him no chance of rest. It wasn't until almost 2 weeks after this they finally did a scan and realised the chemotherapy drugs had caused his bowel to perforate, and the hiccups were being caused by air escaping from the bowel. We were angry at how long it took them to figure it out and how close to death he came from this. He was then only allowed to drink fortisip for quite some time until a scan showed the perforation had healed. The public system then decided they didn't want to risk giving him any more chemo and told him to go away and enjoy the 3 months he would have left.

Not one to give up easily we searched for some private options and found a fantastic doctor in another city in NZ who has been our angel for the past year and a half. He immediatly decided to remove the primary tumour in the colon and put in a portacath going into the hepatic artery into the liver. He used this portacath to deliver SIRT (internal radiation i think also known as yttrium-90) directly to his liver. Then every 4th week Dad had chemotherapy going directly into the liver. We saw amazing results from this treatment and were even able to travel as a family to New York and Washington DC for a vacation for 3 weeks at the end of last year. After stopping the chemo to see what would happen the liver tumours quickly began to grow so it was back on chemo which this time seemed not to work. He was elligble for another does of the internal radiation so we went to get this done in February. And sadly another complication. While injecting the dye to check that radiation wouldn't go anywhere in the body other than the liver a blood clot occured in the hepatic artery, part of which blocked off, travelling to the spleen and causing an infarction of the spleen. He was in immense pain and in hospital for almost 2 weeks. And sadly this clot has blocked access to the hepatic artery into the liver for good, meaning no more hepatic chemo or internal radiation.

So on we searched again and decided to try the new private cancer clinic here at home. They were not to scared to try systemic chemo again, even if we were a little after the last times effect. So last week on Tuesday my Dad had his first dose of Irinotecan. They have just given him a 1/2 dose and monitored him very closely to make sure it didn't cause another bowel perforation. It is now one week since the irinotecan and we can't believe our luck. Other than extreme tiredness the first 3 days there have been no side affects. He will have another dose on May 18th and then a scan will happen to see if it is having an impact.

So thats our story!! Everyone on this forum seems so positive and friendly i wanted to join and be a part of it too. We keep trying to stay positive every day and setting ourselves little short term goals as well as some long term ones too. Our current long term goal is for Dad to be well enough in December to travel to the norther hemisphere for a white christmas since he has always wanted a white christmas. We keep on hoping and praying and are continually greatful for those wonderful doctors out there who didn't give up on us :-)