Appendicle Cancer - A long and unhappy story.

SB2207 · New User Joined: 22 Oct 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Canberra

Hi,

This is the story of my little brother David. Dave passed away on the 17th of December 2008, from Appendicle Cancer that had spread throughout his body. He was 36 years young.

Appendicle Cancer is a very rare form of cancer, of which I have even had doctors say they've never heard of it. The main hospital that deals with it here in Sydney (St Vincents) only expects to see two people present with this disease each year. It's normally only found after it bursts your appendix, and when they operate to remove the appendix. By then it's too late. There is an average 14 months from diagnosis.

Dave first started to notice problems around Xmas 2007. He was having some back pain, but thought it was just muscular as he felt completely well otherwise. He was always very fit and healthy, watching his diet and generally taking very good care of himself. Then in late March, woke up very early one Sunday morning with sever pain in his abdomen. Putting it down to constipation, he put himself on a liquid diet for a couple of days. On the Tuesday he went to the emergency ward, and was diagnosed with a burst appendix. We were all worried, but relieved he would be OK now. The Doctors did more tests, and found he had what they believed to be an infection on his liver caused by the burst appendix. Biopsies showed however, a terrible story.

The spotting on Dave's liver was a secondary cancer to the appendix. It was also incurable. We didn't know the exact timing or anything yet, and to be honest none including Dave really wanted to. He had a PIC line inserted, and began chemo in April through to about August. Further tests were then done, which showed the cancer's growth had slowed, but it was still growing. He was also beginning pain relief during this period, as the back pain was infact the tumour which was wrapped around one of his ribs.

The tumour's growth then began to press against Dave's bowl, which really caused him a lot of pain. He had a couple of short stints in the Hospice as they tried to get his pain relief under control, but in October was admitted to hospital for surgery. Nothing was removed, but they moved things around in such a way as to try and provide him with some relief, which at first it did. He also began another course of chemo, the strongest they could give him. It turned out however he was allergic to this chemo, which caused him to be so very sick we nearly lost him in November. This left him with no other treatment options. The cancer was free to grow as it pleased.

He was also suffering from a fluid build up in his abdominal cavity. They decided to remove the fluid by syringe, and over two days removed six litres of fluid. Two days latter it was back.

He was admitted back into the hospice in the second week of December. The cancer was funning rife, and had gotten into his peritoneal cavity, which was apparently the cause of the fluid build up above. I received a phone call from my father at lunchtime on Wednesday the 10th, telling me Dave was back in the hospice and was seriously worse. I spoke to Dave's Doctor, who said if it were her, she would not waste any time getting there. I went straight up, and spent the next two nights with him.

On the first night, I woke up to find Dave struggling to get out of bed, and before I could stop him, he dropped over the bed rails, and fell backwards hitting his head and splitting it open. He just lay there on the floor with a dumb grin on his face until the nurse and I picked him up.

The second night, he tried to open the automatic dispenser for his nausier drugs, thinking it was morphine. He wanted the lot. This freaked me out as I was the only one there at the time. The next day while I wasn't there, he asked his friends to open the window for some fresh air, and then tried to climb over the rail. His room was four floors up.

The pain and discomfort were unbearable for him. Hi pain meds were so strong, they took his wonderful mind away, leaving him very agitated and confused. He was wasting away, just like the pictures you see of sufferers of malnutrition. The only way in the end to control his pain was to keep him so heavily sedated that he was unconscious most of the time. He varied between begging the Doctors and nurses for something to end it all, to begging for anything to save him.

At 4:30AM on the last day his condition deteriorated significantly. The cancer had eaten its way through the peritoneal cavity. His breathing was heavily laboured, and he was unconscious. I spent his last two hours with him. He seemed to rally at about 1:15 in the afternoon, and opened his eyes for a moment. Then at 1:30, he took three soft easy breaths, and died.

Please don't anyone make any comments about god. There is no such thing. This is just the shitty luck we're genetically dealt in life. The only very small consolation is that the Doctors might learn something from Dave to help the next victim of this disease.
_________________
The hardest person to believe in is yourself!

REB

I am sorry you and David had to go through this. I hope you have been able to find some peace.
_________________
10/01/07 - Removal of Stage III Colon Cancer Tumor & Temporary Colostomy
11-07-07 - FOLFOX regimen - 5-FU (5 Flurouracil), leucovorin & oxaliplatin. Also Avastin
04-09-08 Finished Chemo, 04-28-08 Colostomy Reversal
06-02-09 1 Tumor on outside of colon & 2 in the adipose tissue - same cancer- SUV 5
06-23-09 FOLFIRI and ERBITUX chemo.
08-18-09 Tumors have shrunk. SUV 1
10-26-09 Tumors gone.
11-25-09 Finish FOLFIRI - Jan 2011 Finish ERBITUX?
Age Diagnosed 40. Current Age:42

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