MY MOM HAS STAGE 4 PANCREATIC CANCER

LUCKYU226 · Guest

HHI MY MOM HAS STAGE 4 PANCREATIC CANCER SHE HAS BEEN TAKING THE CHEMO MEDICATION CALLED GEMCITABINE BUT IT'S NOT WORKING. SO GOD WILLING SHE WILL HAVE TO TAKE A NEW MEDICATION IM PRAYING THAT THIS WORKS FOR HER. Crying or Very sad

leo · Contributor Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 1575

Hi

I am sorry to hear about your mother. Pancreatic cancer is unfortunatelly not very responsive to any treatment, unless it is localized.

But I hope she experiences some reponse to alternative chemotherapy regimens, and she can have her symptoms controlled.

regards,
Leo
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Disclaimer: this information is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

MFisher · Guest

[quote="LUCKYU226"]HHI MY MOM HAS STAGE 4 PANCREATIC CANCER SHE HAS BEEN TAKING THE CHEMO MEDICATION CALLED GEMCITABINE BUT IT'S NOT WORKING. SO GOD WILLING SHE WILL HAVE TO TAKE A NEW MEDICATION IM PRAYING THAT THIS WORKS FOR HER. Crying or Very sad

[/quote]

I'm sorry to hear about your mother. My boyfriend also has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Most of the alternative chemos consist of Gemcitibine + one or more other chemo agents. Mark is getting a moderate response from Gemcitibine in combination with Xeloda and Taxotere.

It is important to remember that none of these chemo treatments are considered curative, there is no curative treatmet for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. If your Mom is feeling well at the moment, you amy want to keep in mind that the alternative chemo may be harsher than the Gemcitibine and may make her sick during what would otherwise be the last good months of her life. Mark was pretty sick at the time of his diagnosis so we decided on the alternative chemo, and it has kept is condition stable for about 5 months now -- he is tired alot and sleeps more than normal and has lots of digestive problems, but he is able to get out and do things most days and has a decent appetite, and the chemo has done alot in terms of keeping the pain away.

I don't think any of the alternative chemos are officially approved for pancreatic cancer. You may want to check out www.clinicaltrials.gov even if she isn't interested in joining a clinical trial, it will give you good idea of the therapies that the doctors are finding promising. Most of these are drugs approved for other cancers so her doctor could prescribe them off-lable without her having to join the trial.

The chemo nurses and technicians have also beenvaluable resources for us, they are often more knowledgable about the pros and cons of the various options than the docs.

YOu may also want to look into some of the immunological and biological therapies being tested. These hold some promise of being as effective as the chemos without most of the side effects. Most of them are still in clinical trial, and being new drugs they generally aren't avalable outside of the trial. There is one drug, Virulizin, that is in a stage 3 trial that is full and the manufacturer has a compassionate use policy and will give the drug to pancreatic cancer patients that want to try it. This may be a possibility for other drugs as well.

All this aside, the bottom line is that none of these other therapies have been officially proven effective for pancreatic cancer, despite promising early results.

In the meantime, make the best of the time you have.

God Bless

Mary

TiariTiori · New User Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 2

My Mum also has pancreatic cancer, diagnosed April. She's now on her second programme of chemo after the first one (Gemcitabine) didn't work.

It was a shock that the first lot of chemo wasn't effective; we were measuring its 'success' by how perky she was and how few side effects she got. Her hair loss was surprisingly significant (Gemcitabine's not known for this) and of course, her weight loss added to the physical effects of cancer, but we felt she was doing well. We felt naive when we were told that clinically, it had not produced the results that the doctors wanted in order to continue with treatment.

Mum is now on combined therapy: Carboplatin every three weeks and twice a day, she's taking Capecitabine tablets which is a combination that's seen in a more traditional treatment for colonic cancer. The tablets were an option offered next to CFU which would have meant attaching a pump 24/7 via a Hickman line. The only difference being that tablets must be bought privately while the CFU is on the NHS.

Largely, the advantages of the tablets rested with convenience, because medically, CFU and Capecitabine are similar. Taking two tablets twice a day is far less intrusive than having to carry a pump around, sleep with it and let it curb the chance for baths (which Mum enjoys and uses every day as a means of pain management) and carefree showers.

Also, as the risk of blood clots and infection is increased by the use of a Hickman line, we decided it would be preferable to keep these at an absolute minimum, if we could.

Complications arising from Mum's cancer also means that she has to endure a rapid growth rate in unwanted liquid that forms in her stomach, (in the third space). This causes a lot of discomfort because it gets taut and grows so she looks like she's maybe four months pregnant, which at 63, isn't quite the look she was going for! Anyway, this liquid has to be drained regularly which again, increases the risk of infection because it needs a surgical line-in.

I've been freaking out every time she goes in to hospital with this MRSA scare. Last time I was watching the cleaners flaff about like they were scared of getting their Marigolds dirty, and I felt like battering them, or doing it myself! Terrible how easy it is to become obsessive with this sort of thing when before the diagnosis, I probably lived among my dust and bugs and cobwebs prefectly happily!

I wish more people who have direct experience of pancreatic cancer would make some comments here.... Unlike very many other forms of cancer it seems, pancreatic cancer doesn't get the research investment that many of the others do, which really pisses me off. Sometimes, I think you can spend too much time reading up on this stuff though and everyone's so different that no two cases are identical. That said, I do draw some comfort - is that the right word? - from understanding what's going on / how we - as carers - can help to improve quality of life and contribute to the overall well-being.

So far, I've found these sites useful:
http://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/ (A new one for the UK)
http://www.pancan.org (A well-established one, US.)
http://www.liv.ac.uk/surgery/helping.html (Liverpool University for research, but if your browser is like mine, their page is barely legible and it just makes them look a little back-street, which is a shame.)

Is there anyone else apart from we three out there? Rolling Eyes

_________________
Tiari Tiori

RBailey7160

I'm sorry your loved one has pancreatic cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
My mother who was 68, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on May 9th and on May 18th, she died from it. It spread so quickly to her liver and stomach and she was in so much pain. I miss her very much and now I wonder if I will get it too. I've been having back pains for years and it comes and goes. (Probably just from losing and gaining weight)
My mother was a terribly heavy smoker, diabetic, terrible eater and had hbp and a bad heart.
Sad

I know my mother is in a better place now and free from the awful pain she was put through. I will say this though, she complained to her doctor for over a year that her back hurt and yet the doctor ignored her pain. No x-rays were even taken to see why her back hurt. The Kaiser doctors just gave her pain pills to shut her up.

kenberg · Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 1:41 am Post subject: I'm truely sorry

I lost my mother to Pancreatic Cancer four years ago. She lasted three months afer being diagnosed.

The worst part is that the doctors saw a mass on her pancreatic organ months before, but they said it disappeared again, so they never brought it up to me. When it reappeared, they failed tomention it to anyone again.

They were treating her for diabetes, which she did not have (A misdiagnosis which proved to be fatal in the end)

She worked with me, when I was a child, to overcome a learning disability. I read everything backwards. I graduated from High School with a major in Engish Literature, reading at college level while in my Sophmore year. I'm an MCSE, CCNA, and work for a major Aerospace firm now. She was my reason for trying when everyone thought I was mentally deficient, and a waste of time.

Don't get me wrong, please. I'm not an egghead. Actually, I'm far from that. I'm part of a search and rescue team of volunteers in Northern California, although I live in the Southbay area. I owe everything I am to her. I wish she could see me now.

I think about her all the time. When I lost her, I realized that I had lost the only unconditional love a person will ever know in this world. God, I miss her so much!

I have some thoughts you might find a comforting, but would rather not make public. I don't know if they'd be dignified. Maybe you can give your opinion If you're interested, my email is listed as kenberg@comcast.net

If it will make you feel any better in the mean time. Your chances are slim as far as heredity. There are good phyiological reasons for this.

Friends,

KB
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Where oportunity makes a celebrity, only circumstance can make a hero

lay · New User Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 3 Location: england

[quote="RBailey7160"]I'm sorry your loved one has pancreatic cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
My mother who was 68, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on May 9th and on May 18th, she died from it. It spread so quickly to her liver and stomach and she was in so much pain. I miss her very much and now I wonder if I will get it too. I've been having back pains for years and it comes and goes. (Probably just from losing and gaining weight)
My mother was a terribly heavy smoker, diabetic, terrible eater and had hbp and a bad heart.
Sad

I know my mother is in a better place now and free from the awful pain she was put through. I will say this though, she complained to her doctor for over a year that her back hurt and yet the doctor ignored her pain. No x-rays were even taken to see why her back hurt. The Kaiser doctors just gave her pain pills to shut her up.[/quote]

lay · New User Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 3 Location: england

I am sorry am not quite sure what I did there, I was reading your story and some how managed to post in again. SORRY!

My dad died of pancreatic cancer on the 2nd of january. He was first diagnosed on the 13th August. They first thought it was Hep A because of the jaundice, which he suffered so badly with. He went in for a whipples operation on the 15th of September but when they opened him up they realised that the tumor was bigger than any scans showed and it was wrapped around a valve in the pancreas. He was given 6 - 9 months to live. 2 weeks after he came home he was told it was fast growing and very aggressive and was then given only 5 - 6 weeks. I am so very proud of him and the way he reacted he decided not to have any treatment and just have his last few weeks at home with my mum brother and myself. Some days you forgot he had cancer he was very upbeat and positive and others he was like a shell of his former self. He lost over half his body weight and struggled to eat a thing.

I have never seen such a cruel disease. I think you always think it will happen to someone else or it is a friend of a friend and now it has happened to someone I love I feel so very vunerable.

Dad excepted what was going to happen but unfortunatley because he got so very weak he did not get to do some of the things he wanted to do before he died. They were only little things like taking the dog down to the coast with mum (where we always went on holiday) but they meant so much to him.

It got towards Christmas and he wa still here although he was only given to October. After Christmas he was detirment to make it to my birthday 3rd January. He fought with every part of his body day and night to make it he did not sleep for longer than and hour at a time. At the end it became too much for us all especially my mum as he wanted her by his side every moment. We had night nurses come in to sit with him as he was so determined to be at home. On the 2nd of januay he died at home at 7:10 in the morning he waited for the night nurse to leave and it was just him and my mum.

I am so proud of him and my mum for how she coped. He will always be in my thoughts and my heart. Everyone says it gets easier with time and I hope they are right because the pain I feel now is unbearable. I am sure in time I will move on but my mum has to re-build her whole lif at the age of 44. My dad will never get to see my children or walk me down the aisle when I get married and I feel very cheated.

I know this is by no means an inspiration story I wish it was.

TiariTiori · New User Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 2

I'm really sorry to hear about the various stories that have been posted since I was last here (in Oct '04) - I send all of you, for what it's worth of course, my absolute best wishes and positive thoughts. Knowing that I will be shadowing your experiences with the passing of loved ones makes me feel a bit weird if I'm totally honest. It scares me still, even though I've had plenty of time to ponder / get angry with / get sad about / fight / accept etc etc

But what has gee'ed me along is the consistently warm, respectful and inspiring accounts which, for someone whose mother is still alive, can't be underestimated. It's also good to have some dialogue - even if it's infrequent - with people who understand almost [u]exactly[/u] what's going on for you; it's very very specific, isn't it?

My Mom has been living with pancreatic cancer since the end of April last year. The combination chemo therapy I described above has 'stabilised' her which, as anyone who has come to understand this strain of cancer will know, this is the best we can hope for. There will never be a way of reversing its existence, but there are ways and means of preventing the tumour from growing at the same (aggressive) speed. And this is what the last CT scan showed: the tumour had not grown, nor had it shrunk. We were ecstatic! (And who would have thought we'd have been so happy at what would seem to be unimpressive news to the uninitiated...? Strange how life goes.)

Mom's second CT scan (with this partic chemo combo) is coming up and we're hoping we'll receive similar news.

Some days, I find it hard to deal with. Obvious to say, I know. But when she's upbeat it's difficult to accept she's actually ill. And I freak that when my Mom's gone I'll wish I'd done this and done that - all the things I'd chosen not to do inevitably! All that fear of regret etc. Sometimes, I feel resentful; the impact it's had on my own life - arguably at that mid-30s peak - is tough. And even though I don't want my Mom to be grateful I've given up my career etc to hang out with her, (sounds better than 'care for'), I wish I didn't need quite as much reassurance that what I'm doing is a welcome / good thing.

And I really really understand the person who last posted their story when she said she can't bear the thought of her Dad not seeing her (future) children nor being able to give her away at her wedding.... Me too, from a daughter / Mom pov. I find all that kind of stuff the hardest to take on board - there's nothing I could say to help but I hope you'll take small comfort knowing you're not alone. [Big big hug]

I wish there were more I could do to raise awareness about the initial diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, which as we all prob know, is a feature that so fundamentally delays the treatment that people's lives are, literally, at stake. My Mom's diagnosis was initially gall stones; her back pain was so chronic she'd rock to and fro in her chair, rarely getting comfy enough to stop rocking! Awful.

If anyone would be interested in helping to raise money for pancreatic cancer research, I'd be really keen to hear from you; I have a project I'm working on that needs (non-financial) contributions! Email: tiari@hotmail.co.uk

Warmth and good vibes to all - TT

PS Ken Berg - will be emailing you soon, thanks!
_________________
Tiari Tiori

diplomat · New User Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2

This is my first post on this forum so I hope I'm doing it right. I wanted to tell you how sorry I was to hear what happened to your dad. It sounds like he was fairly young since you mentioned your mom was only 44 yrs old.

Rather than tell my story, I first want to see if I'm even doing this right. And if I am, then I guess I will soon find out if your respond to my post. Smile

Again, please accept my condolescences

[quote="lay"]I am sorry am not quite sure what I did there, I was reading your story and some how managed to post in again. SORRY!

My dad died of pancreatic cancer on the 2nd of january. He was first diagnosed on the 13th August. They first thought it was Hep A because of the jaundice, which he suffered so badly with. He went in for a whipples operation on the 15th of September but when they opened him up they realised that the tumor was bigger than any scans showed and it was wrapped around a valve in the pancreas. He was given 6 - 9 months to live. 2 weeks after he came home he was told it was fast growing and very aggressive and was then given only 5 - 6 weeks. I am so very proud of him and the way he reacted he decided not to have any treatment and just have his last few weeks at home with my mum brother and myself. Some days you forgot he had cancer he was very upbeat and positive and others he was like a shell of his former self. He lost over half his body weight and struggled to eat a thing.

I have never seen such a cruel disease. I think you always think it will happen to someone else or it is a friend of a friend and now it has happened to someone I love I feel so very vunerable.

Dad excepted what was going to happen but unfortunatley because he got so very weak he did not get to do some of the things he wanted to do before he died. They were only little things like taking the dog down to the coast with mum (where we always went on holiday) but they meant so much to him.

It got towards Christmas and he wa still here although he was only given to October. After Christmas he was detirment to make it to my birthday 3rd January. He fought with every part of his body day and night to make it he did not sleep for longer than and hour at a time. At the end it became too much for us all especially my mum as he wanted her by his side every moment. We had night nurses come in to sit with him as he was so determined to be at home. On the 2nd of januay he died at home at 7:10 in the morning he waited for the night nurse to leave and it was just him and my mum.

I am so proud of him and my mum for how she coped. He will always be in my thoughts and my heart. Everyone says it gets easier with time and I hope they are right because the pain I feel now is unbearable. I am sure in time I will move on but my mum has to re-build her whole lif at the age of 44. My dad will never get to see my children or walk me down the aisle when I get married and I feel very cheated.

I know this is by no means an inspiration story I wish it was.[/quote]

diplomat · New User Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2

I still can't figure out how to respond to an individual person. Tiari, are you getting notification that I just posted to you because I don't want to say alot unless I know you will see it.

[quote="TiariTiori"]I'm really sorry to hear about the various stories that have been posted since I was last here (in Oct '04) - I send all of you, for what it's worth of course, my absolute best wishes and positive thoughts. Knowing that I will be shadowing your experiences with the passing of loved ones makes me feel a bit weird if I'm totally honest. It scares me still, even though I've had plenty of time to ponder / get angry with / get sad about / fight / accept etc etc

But what has gee'ed me along is the consistently warm, respectful and inspiring accounts which, for someone whose mother is still alive, can't be underestimated. It's also good to have some dialogue - even if it's infrequent - with people who understand almost [u]exactly[/u] what's going on for you; it's very very specific, isn't it?

My Mom has been living with pancreatic cancer since the end of April last year. The combination chemo therapy I described above has 'stabilised' her which, as anyone who has come to understand this strain of cancer will know, this is the best we can hope for. There will never be a way of reversing its existence, but there are ways and means of preventing the tumour from growing at the same (aggressive) speed. And this is what the last CT scan showed: the tumour had not grown, nor had it shrunk. We were ecstatic! (And who would have thought we'd have been so happy at what would seem to be unimpressive news to the uninitiated...? Strange how life goes.)

Mom's second CT scan (with this partic chemo combo) is coming up and we're hoping we'll receive similar news.

Some days, I find it hard to deal with. Obvious to say, I know. But when she's upbeat it's difficult to accept she's actually ill. And I freak that when my Mom's gone I'll wish I'd done this and done that - all the things I'd chosen not to do inevitably! All that fear of regret etc. Sometimes, I feel resentful; the impact it's had on my own life - arguably at that mid-30s peak - is tough. And even though I don't want my Mom to be grateful I've given up my career etc to hang out with her, (sounds better than 'care for'), I wish I didn't need quite as much reassurance that what I'm doing is a welcome / good thing.

And I really really understand the person who last posted their story when she said she can't bear the thought of her Dad not seeing her (future) children nor being able to give her away at her wedding.... Me too, from a daughter / Mom pov. I find all that kind of stuff the hardest to take on board - there's nothing I could say to help but I hope you'll take small comfort knowing you're not alone. [Big big hug]

I wish there were more I could do to raise awareness about the initial diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, which as we all prob know, is a feature that so fundamentally delays the treatment that people's lives are, literally, at stake. My Mom's diagnosis was initially gall stones; her back pain was so chronic she'd rock to and fro in her chair, rarely getting comfy enough to stop rocking! Awful.

If anyone would be interested in helping to raise money for pancreatic cancer research, I'd be really keen to hear from you; I have a project I'm working on that needs (non-financial) contributions! Email: tiari@hotmail.co.uk

Warmth and good vibes to all - TT

PS Ken Berg - will be emailing you soon, thanks![/quote]

lay · New User Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 3 Location: england

[quote="RBailey7160"]I'm sorry your loved one has pancreatic cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
My mother who was 68, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on May 9th and on May 18th, she died from it. It spread so quickly to her liver and stomach and she was in so much pain. I miss her very much and now I wonder if I will get it too. I've been having back pains for years and it comes and goes. (Probably just from losing and gaining weight)
My mother was a terribly heavy smoker, diabetic, terrible eater and had hbp and a bad heart.
Sad

I know my mother is in a better place now and free from the awful pain she was put through. I will say this though, she complained to her doctor for over a year that her back hurt and yet the doctor ignored her pain. No x-rays were even taken to see why her back hurt. The Kaiser doctors just gave her pain pills to shut her up.[/quote]

ANGEL'S WINGS · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:47 am Post subject: Pancreatic Cancer hope.......

Hi:

First of all I wish I had found this website many months ago. My mother is 83 years old now and has pancreatic cancer. Her story is truely a miracle...one of which I wish can continue but the past week or so has not been good. In April 2003 she had developed bowel problems whereby everything she ate ran right through her. It happened after having a minor procedure to remove a small cysts which turned out to be nothing more then a hemmoriod. I thought her problem was due to an infection from the surgery so I took her back to the gastrologists who ran tests and said it was nothing. Her symptoms of diaherra continued and her stools became oily and loose. I kept taking her back to the gastrologists who refered her to the surgeon who in turn sent her back to the gastrologist. I felt her quality of life was being effected as she could not even leave the house. I continued calling and taking her to the gastrologist who made no further attempts to find out what was causing her problem. His response was it's old age go home wear a depends and take Amodium AD!! Well I was not satasified with his answer so I contacted her primary care physican and told him I wanted to take her into Boston to see someone. He agreed and that was done. That doctor also did nothing to find the cause of her problem, he merely covered it up by giving her medicines to stop the diaherra. This continued for months and the medicines he gave did not completely cure the problem. In November 2003, 7 months later, the day after Thanksgiving she complained of severe stomach pain, we took her to a local hospital emergency room and they ran tests. The source of pain could not be determined so they called in a gastrologist (not the one she previously had, we were all done with him!) who did a gastroscopy on her. Right after looking down into her stomach he came out and told us that he had seen what possibly looked like a nasty cancerous ulcer. I told him about the oily stools that she had had since April and right away he said, that changes everything, he KNEW right after hearing that, that she had pancreatic cancer! I was beside myself, here was a doctor that did not know my mother from a hole in the wall and he was standing right in front of me telling me this is what was wrong with my mother. He immediately recommended that she go into Boston to see a surgeon that he knew who could perform a whipple procedure. We took my mother to see him, unfortunetly he was not able to perform the whipple procedure becasue it is a very dangerous operation which he felt she would not have survived. Instead he opted to perform a gastric bypass. Her stomach pain was caused from food becoming trapped in her stomach due to the tumor blocking the exit way of the stomach. He said if she had waited 2 more weeks she would of died. He operated on her immediately in December 2003 and made a new passage way for the food to exit the stomach right to the intestines and he reconnected the bile duct from the liver to the intestine to prevent jaundice. She was 82 years old at the time, the day after surgery she was up and walking with 30 staples in her stomach. I told them all they underestimated her. He thought he was looking at a 82 year old frail woman. She proved them wrong! After recovering from that operation she went to see the oncologist who was referred to us by the lifesaving gastrologist! His recommendation of the surgeon was phenominal so we did not hesitate with the oncologist. My mother's oncologist is a female not that it makes a difference but she is very caring. She initally was going to do radiation but while they were making the plates they noticed the cancer had spread to her lungs. They decided they would not do radation and started chemotheraphy. Her first dose was January 2004 of Gemzar which is usually used for lung cancer. My mother did awesome on this drug, she had no side effects and the spot on her lung was gone. The oncologist checks her bloodwork every week to monitor everything. Her CA19-9 at one point was down to 88....66 being normal. It was unbelievable! My mother was now going on 9 months after having symptoms. Only God knows how long it was there before the symptoms started. Anyway the results of Gemzar lasted about 6 months when her cancer markers started going up. She was then switched to Xeloda for 2 weeks but she hated taking pills and we felt that it would be better controled by IV infusion. So she was put on Taxotera, again without and side effects. A few times she needed a Procrit shot but for the most part she did great. Taxotera worked for about another 6 months. Then she was put back on the Xeloda for 6 months now. Again she did great on that and throught these treatments they did cat scans that showed spots on her liver and lungs. But all the treatments cured those. The one in the pancreatis was still there but it was not growing or spreading and showed signs of dying. Unfortunetly this disease is a very difficult one and there is no complete cure, it nver goes away...it is only controlled. We were told up front that the one in the pancreatis would never go away if the treatments al worked it would just keep it under control. This past month her blood count CA19-9 has been escalating. She was hospitlized a week ago with stomach pain. The gastrologist who I love dearly and credit for saving her life, scoped her to see what could be casuing her pain. He said there was no sign of stomach cancer or ulcers. He consulted with the oncologist who ran bone scans thinking it spread to the bones. Thank god it didn't, they did ultrasounds and can not see anything anywhere other than the one we know about in the pancreatis. But becasue her CA19-9 is now up to 4800 they know it is somewhere but can not see it. She is a tiny woman to begin with 4' 7" and now only weighs 88 lbs. The gastrologist was amazed to see that my mother was still living...after seeing her back in November 2003 he thought she would only live 3 months and had her as a gonner. Here she is going on 19 months since being diagonsed! Maybe because of her age the growth rate isn't as rapid. I've heard that his type of cancer worsens rapidly. She was supposed to start on IV infusion of Campasar but her liver functions are up alittle so they are using Tarceva chemotheraphy pills instead. She starts them tomorrow! Right now she is weak and seems to be getting frail, the pain she's been in has taken it's toll on her and she has been taking Perocets until the Oxicontins came in a few days ago. They help with the pain but I am so afraid that she may not handle this since she has no appetite and she eats very little....sometimes only bites. I hope she can fight it off and the Tarceva starts working. They are thinking of giving it to her until the liver functions are back to normal then start her on Campasar. The past few weeks have taken it's toll on the family having to see her suffer and we feeling helpless. My mother is 83 and it stinks that she has to go through this. She is a worry wart and because of her age, my sibilings and I decided in the beginning not to tell her that she has pancreatic cancer. She knows she has a tumor and underwent surgery and treatments but that is all. I know that some people do not agree with that decision but the doctors respect the fact that we are protecting her. Everyone thinks deep down she really knows and just isn't saying the word cancer and that is fine! From everything that we have heard, people with pancreatic cancer usually only live 3 to 6 months if even that. Most people do not even know they have it until they get yellow jaundice and at that point it is too late. We felt why ruin whatever time she has by telling her she has cancer. She would constantly be thinking that she was going to die and would give up her will to live! She has gotten her strength from us which makes her will to live strong. Everyday has been a miracle and I truely believe that. We have always known that the day will come that we'll lose her but no one wants to loose someone they love hold dear! Even now we see her wanting to get better and continuing her fight. I know that this turned out to be a long story but it was worth telling if someone learns something new. We also gave her selinium, vitamin E, super greens, and herbal medicines dirived from pine bark which chemo drugs are made of. Wheatgrass juice is supposed to be good for cancer patients also but she never liked it. Once we found out she had the disease we did alot of online research. Only God truely knows what has kept her here this long! I lost my dad back in 1987 to asbestos lung cancer, he was only 67, once we found out he had it he only lived 6 months. Back then they did not have all the technology we have now. I am now 47, my mother lives with me and my family, I am forever greatful that through all this, that I've had her this long....I only wish it could last longer and I'm not ready to give her up! Good luck to everyone out there fighting this fight. There is hope. If anyone is familiar with Tarceva or Camposar please let me know! I LOVE YOU MOM!! Rosie

treible · New User Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 1

I just lost my mom to pancreatic cancer on 9-1-05. Her funeral was yesterday, and I miss her so much. My mom had cancer for almost two years, and she went through so much pain. The last 2 months was the worst. I hated to see her in that shape. She couldn't even get up at the end. I sit here and think, how do I get over this? I feel so empty now. I still don't believe she's gone. It's just hard to accept. My prayers are with anyone having to go through this. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.

Lana8

I am so sorry to here about your mom. I lost my sister on 6-11-05 due to lung cancer. You and your family are in my prayers. A web site that may help is groww.org It has really helped me when I need to talk. This site has also been very helpful. I have read much new information that I had no idea about. God be with you and your family.
Lana

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A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others